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Arizona traveled to Utah in a battle of two of the worst teams in the conference. It started off sketchy on Friday, as Utah took the first game with a late-inning grand slam. But the Wildcats turned it around in the tenth inning on Saturday, and kept it rolling into Sunday with a 5-2 victory to clinch the series.
The starting pitching was on point in those two wins, leading to those two starters on Three Up this week.
Who will join them and who did not partake in the success? Here we go:
Three Up
1. Tyger Talley
For a guy who started the season as the closer, Talley sure is good at this starting thing. Seven one-run innings for the sophomore on Sunday in his weekend debut. Utah was only able to scrape together five hits and two walks against Talley, who showed a whole different style of pitching with this outing. No strikeouts? Is this real life? Anyway, three straight good starts for the righty is a very welcome sign, and I'm not stepping out on a limb here by saying he'll be in the weekend rotation for the foreseeable future.
2. Cody Hamlin
Hamlin may not have picked up the win on Saturday, but he definitely deserved it. Again, only five hits given up, but his were over 8 2/3 innings. One walk, one earned run, and two strikeouts. Wouldn't be surprised if Hamlin gets moved up to Friday over James Farris. He just looks that much better in these Pac-12 games than Farris has. Plain and simple.
And having two sophomores as the two best starting pitchers is at least encouraging for next year.
3. Scott Kingery
Kingery continues to be the king of the offense. The center fielder racked up multi-hit games each day this week, going 7-for-12 overall. Add to that two runs scored and two RBI and you've got a decent three-game series. Saturday and Sunday were different with Lopez putting Kingery in the three-hole, but it worked out. Will be interesting to see if that continues against ASU and UCLA this week.
Three Down
1. Trent Gilbert
The worst part about Kingery staying hot is the inability for the hitters around him in the lineup to get any production. This weekend, that was on Trent Gilbert. 1-for-14 on the weekend with three punch outs. Just brutal.
2. Right field
Joseph Maggi started in RF on Friday, and of course went 0-for-4. So Kenny Meimerstorf started the last two games out there, went 1-for-7, and left five runners on base. Can we clone Kingery and put that clone out there in right? So frustrating that two outfielders are constantly producing, and then no one can step up and be decent in right.
3. Kevin Newman
1-for-12 for Newman. Two strikeouts. And he had an error on Sunday, his ninth of the season. Last year, Newman had just six errors for the entire season. He's just been so inconsistent this year. And Lopez is struggling to figure out whether to bat him at the top of the lineup, or third. Maybe the eight or nine hole would work better?
A sweep was there for the taking, but a series win is a series win, especially on the road. Sunday was encouraging as all five runs were scored with two-outs in the inning. Maybe it'll be a springboard into a tough stretch of games coming up.