Arizona fell to TCU on Saturday night 11-4 and are now facing elimination in today's rematch with Baylor at 2:00 CDT. The Cats fell behind early in this one 5-2 after the top of the fourth inning and clawed their way back to within striking distance of 8-5 in the bottom of the eighth but couldn't muster enough offense to keep up with TCU. Kyle Simon takes the L, pitching only 3.2 innings and giving up 6 runs, all earned on 6 hits and 4 walks. The night was started out by Simon hitting two TCU batters. Not a good way to get a game going. TCU only sent two pitchers to the mound all night versus the Cats who pitched seven. Matt Purke got the win for TCU going 6.1 innings and giving up only 4 runs, 3 earned on 6 hits and 2 walks.
Josh Garcia was the lone bright spot in the lineup for the Cats. He was 3-4 on the night with 2 runs and 1 RBI including a home run and a triple. Robert Refsnyder and white hot Alex Mejia each had 2 hits as well. Joe Weik, the designated hitter for TCU, was 4-5 with 6 RBI's and 2 runs scored including a 3 run bomb off Joe Allison.
Although the Cats were clawing their way out of the hole all night long, TCU was in control the entire game. At no point in time did I think that Arizona was going to lose. It is really tough to fall behind by 3 runs to a team like TCU and get back into the game. The Cats played their hearts out and couldn't get a solid effort from their starter last night. Hopefully, today's battle against Baylor will be a better showing for the starting pitching staff.
Arizona will face Baylor today at 2:00 p.m. CDT. The winner will face TCU tonight at 7:00 p.m. CDT. Should the winner of the Baylor/Arizona game knock off TCU, there will be a deciding championship game on Monday in Fort Worth.