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It was a horrible game for Arizona on Sunday. Starter Stephen Manthei (1-1) failed to record an out, putting Arizona behind by a couple runs. The Wildcats never recovered, burning through nine pitchers on their way to a 9-2 loss.
San Francisco (5-7) managed to salvage a game in the three-game series behind great pitching from starter Christian Cecilio (1-0) and reliever Haden Hinkle (S, 1).
Arizona (10-3) never got anything going offensively, getting just eight people on base.
"It was painful today," said head coach Andy Lopez. "Good day for San Francisco, their starter was outstanding, and our starter was less than stellar."
The one bright spot for the Wildcats was the performance by freshman pitcher Cody Moffett. He came in for Manthei after Manthei only faced four batters.
"Really good damage control. He got people out," said Lopez.
Moffett ended up going four innings on the day, not allowing any hits and giving up just one walk.
"Just mixing up off-speed fastball, cutter was on today, in and out of the zone...just getting outs," said Moffett. "I was a little caught off guard in the first inning, but I had a feeling at some point I would be in the game so I was prepared."
"Probably put himself right in the rotation maybe, he may be our Sunday starter," said Lopez.
On being the Sunday starter, Moffett said "I'm just gonna do whatever they need me to do to win games."
Arizona used nine pitchers on the day, including a lot of guys that had yet to see game action in the 2013 season. Some of those guys being Xavier Borde (1/3 IP), Nathan Bannister (1 IP), Vincent Littleman (1 IP), and Jesse Scholtens (0 IP).
"It wasn't by design, but then we wanted to give Moffett a chance and I thought he did a marvelous job. Augey Bill did a good job. Cunningham did a decent job, not a great job but a decent job. And then at that point yeah it was running some people out there. It didn't look like we were going to score, it didn't feel like we were going to score but we still wanted to keep it close....everybody deserves a chance and that's the hard part about the early part of the season, the only way you find out is in a game."
"You have to get answers to your questions and the only way you get 'em is in a game setting, and sometimes that's painful, sometimes that is painful."
Upcoming schedule:
Tuesday, March 5th vs. Texas Tech 6PM
Wednesday, March 6th vs. Texas Tech 1PM
Friday, March 8th vs. Columbia 6PM
Saturday, March 9th vs. Columbia 6PM
Sunday, March 10th vs. Columbia Noon
All games at Hi Corbett Field