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Arizona baseball: Three Up, Three Down: Wildcats swept away by Oregon Ducks

Another road series, another winless weekend for the Cats

By Jason Bartel
Jason Bartel

The Arizona Wildcats were unable to come home from Eugene with a win.  The Oregon Ducks did just enough, winning Friday's game 6-1, taking Saturday in the tenth inning, and then finished Sunday off with a grand slam in the 8th to seal a 5-1 win.

This series loss apparently did not sit well with Mathew Troupe, who is not allowed to travel with the team while he is recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Can't imagine that going over well with the coaching staff.  Dumb is probably not the best word choice there.

I'd love to talk about how bad the situational hitting has been, but it's been that way all year.  This team stinks overall, but there were some good performances this weekend.  Here's the grand return of Three Up, Three Down.

Three Up

1. Tyler Krause

Krause has benefited from the team struggling because now he is receiving significant playing time.  And the junior transfer is making the most of it.  He started all three games in left field on the weekend and went a combined 6-for-12.  Outside of the Saturday game, Krause was the only Cat to have a multi-hit game, and he did it all three games.  So if you're looking for the silver lining in this mess of a season, here he is.

2. Tyger Talley

The biggest beneficiary of Troupe not being able to make the transition into a weekend starter has apparently been Talley.  The sophomore righty had another good start on Sunday, going seven innings while allowing just five hits and one earned run.  All of the sudden, he has me believing he could be the Friday night guy next year.  Long way to go to get there, but Talley certainly looks a lot more comfortable as a starter than he ever did as a reliever.

3. Zach Gibbons

Gibbons was sick all weekend, and battled through it.  He even made a hospital visit Saturday morning to get fluids pumped into him.  Good to see someone on this team have some fight.  Never mind that he went 2-for-10.

An honorable mention goes out to Michael Hoard's defense on Sunday.  During George Horton's in-game interview, Hoard caught a foul ball and then fell into the Oregon dugout.  That made for some good TV.   And then he made a sweet diving catch the very next inning.  Nice improvement from the days where he was dropping can-of-corn flyouts earlier this year.

Three Down

1. J.T. Snow

All three games were on Pac-12 Network, and former Wildcat J.T. Snow was the "analyst" for all of those broadcasts.  Snow's go-to move for each player?  Look at the roster and read where they went to high school, and their height and weight.  That's it.  No real analysis.  And I know he's seen Arizona a bunch this year, so why is he not able to retain anything he's seen or heard so far this year?

And for every pitcher, the go-to line is "he's a strikeout pitcher".  He said that about Cody Moffett.  If this is a world where Cody Moffett is a strikeout pitcher, then what do we call Randy Johnson?

2. Bobby Dalbec

It looks like Dalbec's arm has hit the wall this year, which is understandable.  Lopez has counted on him a lot, and you knew there would be a point where the breaking pitches wouldn't be there anymore, and the velocity would dip.  That day is here after surrendering the go-ahead grand slam on Sunday.  He also pitched Saturday, and struggled in extra-innings as well.  In total, the freshman threw 3.1 innings, gave up seven hits, walked two guys, and surrendered four total earned runs.  He also hurt Moffett's ERA by allowing both runners he inherited on Sunday to score, and allowed the runner he inherited from Cody Hamlin to score on Saturday.

3. Trent Gilbert

Get a clue at the plate man.  Whatever the situation calls for, Gilbert does the exact opposite.  Every.  Single.  Time.  2-for-12 overall on the weekend, and struck out three times.  That pretty much sums up the junior leadership that's on this team.

Stanford comes to Tucson next weekend.  Expect more of the same from these Wildcats.

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