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The Cats started the night with a national championship celebration, and finished the night with a one-hit shutout of Coppin State, winning 16-0.
Kurt Heyer and Joey Rickard were on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitches after the unveiling of the 2012 National Championship banner on the outfield wall and a highlight video from last year.
But after that, it was all business for Arizona.
After 2, there were no runs and no hits from either side. In the bottom of the third, Tyler Parmenter got the hit parade started for U of A with a lead off triple. An error by the Coppin State 2B Colin Dower allowed Parmenter to score after the next batter, and it was an offensive assault by the Cats after that.
The third inning saw 7 Arizona runs, highlighted by triples from Parmenter, Johnny Field and Brandon Dixon. Arizona added 4 more in the 4th, and 2 more in the 5th.
14 runs was more than enough run support for Konner Wade. Wade was on his game for his first career Friday night start.
"I felt like I had a lot of movement tonight" said Wade.
He had 8 strikeouts on the night, 7 of them swinging.
"They definitely were an aggressive team."
Wade took a no-hitter into the 7th inning before giving up a lead-off single to David Hamlett. Coach Lopez came out to visit him right after the hit and told him "this is your last hitter. If you'd like to do something with this guy, so be it".
"We had a 90 pitch count on him, and he got to 91."
Nick Cunningham came in to close out the game for the Wildcats. Lopez said that after his performance tonight, Cunningham will be Tuesday night's starter.
Johnny Field was the star on the offensive side of the ball, going 3-5 with 5 RBI and 3 runs.
On his bases clearing triple in the third, Field said "I was just going up looking....looking for a pitch up to keep it off the ground."
Freshman Scott Kingery got the nod in the lead-off spot tonight, and did not disappoint. He ended up going 2-3 to go with 3 HBPs, 3 runs and 2 RBI in his Wildcat debut.
"Kingery looks great. I think that kid's gonna be a stud someday, he already is a stud as a freshman, He's doing a great job for us in the lead-off spot and I think he'll continue that and have a real successful year this year." said Field.
Every Wildcat starter with the exception of Kevin Newman scored a run tonight.
One interesting note from tonight's game. Arizona had a school record 7 hit batters in the game.
Arizona and Coppin State continue their series Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at noon at Hi Corbett Field
Full Postgame Quotes:
Pac-12 Recap:
Oregon State 5 Utah Valley 2
Washington State 5 Western Carolina 2
California 5 Michigan 4
Utah 6 Loyola Marymount 3
Washington 4 UC Davis 8
Stanford 1 Rice 5
Arizona State 5 Bethune-Cookman 4
UCLA 3 Minnesota 6
USC 2 Cal State Fullerton 3