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Oregon vs. Arizona baseball: Wildcats complete series sweep of Ducks

The train just keeps on rollin

By Jason Bartel
Jason Bartel

After taking down the Oregon Ducks by scores of 7-2 and 9-5 on Friday and Saturday, the Arizona Wildcats completed the series sweep with a 13-4 win on Sunday.

"That's a good weekend," head coach Andy Lopez said after the game on Sunday. "What an understatement. Captain Obvious or whatever that commercial is."

Arizona has now won six-straight games, improving to 7-2 in Pac-12 play, with the only two losses coming to Utah.

Oregon came into the series with some of the best pitching numbers in the nation, but did not back those stats up on Sunday.

After scoring a run in the first, the Wildcats pounded out seven more in the second to take an early 8-0 lead. The outburst was highlighted by a Bobby Dalbec to right that actually stuck in the padding just above the red line.

"It was the first pitch, and he left a fastball over the plate," the sophomore said of that at bat. "I saw it (stick in the wall) and that was pretty funny."

An inning later, Dalbec was up to bat again, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson entered the building. The Arizona forward received a standing ovation while Dalbec was facing the Oregon pitching, and eventually struck out.

"That's why everyone was cheering?" Dalbec joked. "I didn't even know that Rondae was here so I'll have to talk to him after the game, tell him to quit it."

Sunday starter Tyger Talley lasted just 2 1/3 innings before being lifted with arm numbness.

"We're going to hold our breath on Talley," Lopez explained after the game. "I was just going out there as kind of a basketball timeout just to slow the momentum down, and he said 'Coach you gotta get me out of the game. My arm is numb'. So we'll see. But I don't know what the status is on that."

"He's been good," coach continued. "He's been exactly what you want in a Sunday match up."

"I think he's just being precacious," Dalbec added. "If Tyger's pulling himself out he's being serious."

The Arizona bullpen did not impress. The combination of Cody Moffett, Rio Gomez, and Austin Schnabel gave up seven hits and three runs in 3 1/3 innings. Xavier Borde stopped the bleeding, earning the save with 3 1/3 shutout innings to finish the game.

"Really really pleased with Borde today," Lopez said. "Really came in and did a marvelous job. We looked like we were going to get out of control there with a couple guys."

Zach Gibbons had himself a day, going 3-for-4 with a couple of runs scored, a walk and a double. He also made a nice running grab in right-center in the top of the eighth inning. Scott Kingery tacked on three hits and two runs of his own. Five guys had multi-RBI games for Arizona on Sunday.

The Wildcats' schedule gets tougher next weekend as the USC Trojans come to Tucson. The three-game series will take place Thursday-Saturday because of Easter weekend. Hopefully Tyger Talley's injury isn't too serious and the starting rotation won't have to be shuffled around. If it does, I would expect Nathan Bannister to take over that third-starter role.

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