Arizona Overcomes Loyola Marymount 7-6, Earns Series Sweep

Arizona mens baseball capped a series sweep of the Loyola Marymount Lions in dramatic fashion tonight in Tucson. The Wildcats turned a throwing error in the bottom of the ninth combined with some excellent hitting and base running into a 7-6 triumph over the Lions(29-24). Brad Glenn’s sacrifice fly, scoring, Bryce Ortega netted the Cats(25-23) their sixth consecutive victory at Sancet Stadium.

Contrary to their last few outings, the Wildcats did not benefit from a stong outing from their starting pitcher. Daniel Workman gave up four earned runs on five hits in just 20 pitches beore Arizona Coach Andy Lopez pulled him with two outs in the top of the first inning. Reliever Joe Allison came on and pitched five plus strong innings for the home team. He had one earned run on four hits and four strike outs. Pre-Season All-American Jason Stoffel(2-1) ended up with the win after he retired the side in the top of the ninth inning.

Dillion Baird went 2-3 with an RBI and extended his hitting streak to 15 games. But it was Brad Glenn who was the hero of the evening. Glenn hit is 100th extra base hit in the bottom of the eighth inning with a double, and then scored when Hunter Pace knocked him in. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, Ortega reached on a throwing error to first, scoring Mike Weldon. Later in the inning, after back-to-back walks to Baird and Jett Bandy, Glenn hit a sacrifice fly to deep center that scored Ortega. “We knew that if we set ourselves up to score anyone of these guys could knock one in” said Glenn.

The Lions benefited from an early lead and stellar starting pitching. Ramiro Carreon threw six solid innings, with three earned runs on five hits to go along with his six strikeouts. Ernie Cho and John Lally, however, combined to give up five runs on four hits in only two innings of relief.
Loyola Marymount started off the game swinging, scoring four runs on five hits in the first inning alone. They would score only two more runs on two more hits the rest of the game. Angelo Songco went 2-3 three inluding a three run shot in the first and a solo home run in the third and Shon Roe went 2-4 with two RBI.

When Coach Lopez was asked why Workman was seen leaving the staduim with a trainer he said “We are down on arms and he [Workman] had strep throat. I rolled the dice and it didn’t work out.” Lopez added that Workman “will be fine”.

Arizona starts their last home series on Saturday, May 16th against Washington. Arizona will have to stay hot if the want to remain in contention for a post season birth. Arizona will then host Arizona State the following Wednesday in what will be the Wildcats final home game of the seaon. The boys from Tucson rap up their season in Eugene, where they will face Oregon in less than two weeks.