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There's no skirting around it anymore. This Arizona Baseball team is not good. Yes, playing at Washington is tough this year, and the Huskies have a chance to make some kind of run this year. But the Wildcats got progressively worse over the weekend, which is not what you want to see.
Friday's game was the closest with an 8-7 final score. Saturday was a little worse at 5-2, and Sunday was the rotten cherry to top it all off with an 8-0 beatdown.
So what went right and what didn't? Let's take a look:
Three Up:
1. Joseph Maggi
I said this last year and I'll say it again. Put Maggi at first base, and keep him there. The dude's not an outfielder, and it shows at the plate. Maggi is back as the starting first baseman, and whaddya know, he went 6-for-10 against Washington. He had seven total hits this season in his prior 15 games.
The same story happened last year. He stunk in non-conference while he was in the outfield. In Pac-12 play, Lopez moved him back to first base, and Maggi had the highest batting average in the Pac-12 during conference play out of everyone. So here we go again. Waste the first half of the year, and then put him back where he's obviously more comfortable and not pressing as much.
2. Tyler Parmenter
Parmenter just keeps on getting it done on the mound this year. Six shutout innings in two appearances in Seattle for the junior. He went three innings in each appearance, and set a new career-high with 7 Ks in Sunday's game. Three total hits allowed. Parmenter is definitely the top option out of the pen right now, which if you had said that three months ago, everyone would have called you crazy. Good on Parms.
3. Nope
Sorry, not gonna put a third guy on here.
Three Down:
1. Starting pitching
Rough weekend for all three starters. 16.1 combined innings from James Farris, Cody Hamlin and Austin Schnabel. 26 hits allowed and 16 earned runs. Yuck
2. Riley Moore
The Arizona catcher went 0-for-10 with 3 Ks. He did get an RBI on a sac fly in Friday's game though, so he wasn't completely shutout at the plate. The Huskies also stole three bases on the weekend. The problem at catcher is that Moore, Jordan Berger, and Nathan Zavos are all juniors, so there's no real benefit to getting anyone else some experience there as the Wildcats continue to fall out of the tournament picture.
3. Kevin Newman
Newman's inconsistency this season continues. 1-for-12 at Husky Stadium with a couple of punchouts. If Newman's not hitting, no one's going to hit.
It doesn't get any easier for Arizona as they travel to Tempe on Wednesday to take on a Sun Devil team that just took two games in Corvallis. And then that Oregon State team comes to Tucson this weekend. All four games this week are on Pac-12 Network, so there's no better time to all of the sudden start playing well when more people will be watching. There are no signs of life, but maybe a quick trip up to Tempe will get something jump-started.