Arizona baseball falls in extra innings at Grand Canyon

Arizona’s road trip is not off to a great start.

Grand Canyon’s Channy Ortiz hit a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 10th inning off Vince Vannelle, sending the Wildcats to a 5-4 loss on Tuesday night in Phoenix.

It was the second straight loss for Arizona (21-10) after it fell 9-1 at home to Cal on Sunday. The last time the Wildcats had consecutive losses was March 12-13 at home against Wichita State and Air Force.

The UA led 2-0 in the top of the second on an RBI double from Nik McClaughry and an RBI triple from Donta’ Williams, only to see GCU score three in the bottom of the second off UA starter Chandler Murphy, who only lasted 1.2 innings.

The Wildcats tied it at 3 in the third on a Kobe Kato sacrifice fly and took the lead in the fourth on fielder’s choice by Branden Boissiere.

Grand Canyon tied things in the seventh off Quinn Flanagan, one of four UA relievers.

Arizona hitters struck out 12 times and left 13 men on base in falling to 4-5 in one-run games and 0-2 in extra-inning affairs.

The Wildcats return to action Friday afternoon for the start of a 3-game series at Washington State.