Arizona baseball wraps up road trip with win at Pacific

Arizona’s 4-day weekend in California started off rough, but ended very well.

The Wildcats beat Pacific 13-8 on Monday afternoon in Stockton, Calif., finishing 3-1 on their first road trip of the season. The victory over the Tigers followed a 2-1 series win at Cal to open Pac-12 play.

The UA (13-4) fell behind 5-2 after two innings but then scored 10 times over the next four frames. Two-run doubles by Tommy Splaine and Tyler Casagrande put Arizona ahead 7-5 in the fifth, then Chase Davis smacked a 3-run home run and Noah Turley added a 2-run blast in the sixth to build a 12-5 advantage.

All nine Arizona batters had at least one hit, with Davis and Turley each collecting two. Davis, Splaine and Turley each drove in three runs while five Wildcats scored at least twice. Davis and leadoff hitter Nik McClaughry each drew three of Arizona’s 11 walks.

Quinn Flanagan got the win with two scoreless innings of relief as Arizona used eight pitchers. The Wildcats started right-hander Chandler Murphy, who was making his season debut after being sidelined with a forearm injury, but he lasted only one-third of an inning after allowing three runs, three hits and two walks.

Arizona scored 44 runs on the road trip and have scored 56 in the past five games after being limited to five total runs in a pair of home losses to Texas State.

The UA returns home to take on Stanford, the Pac-12 preseason favorite and the team that eliminated the Wildcats from the College World Series, starting Saturday night at Hi Corbett. The Cardinal (9-5) opened Pac-12 play by losing two of three at home to Oregon.

Susac wins Pac-12, national awards

UA catcher Daniel Susac, who was 1 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored while playing DH on Monday, was named both the Pac-12 Player of the Week and Collegiate Baseball’s National Player of the Week.

The sophomore hit .526 (10 for 19) with three homers and 11 RBI in four games last week, including Sunday’s 13-5 win at Cal when he homered twice in the first inning. He became the first UA player to homer twice in an inning since Kenny Corley in 1998.

For the season Susac, the preseason Pac-12 Player of the Year and a unanimous preseason All-American, is hitting .407 with 11 doubles, three homers and 23 RBI.