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Sports BlogArizona 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. 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. Game Two of the weekend series between the Loyola Marymount Lions and the Arizona Wildcats played out much like game one. Good Arizona starting pitching and offense to back it up. On the mound for Arizona was Freshman Kyle Simon who improved to 3-5 on the year. He threw six strong innings and had a career high six strikeouts. Simon gave up three runs all in the first three innings and then set down the remaining nine batters in order before giving way to the bullpen. Head Coach Andy Lopez spoke after the game saying that at the beginning of the season Simon was expected to be red-shirted and developed for next season. But with the pitching struggles the Wildcats have endured Lopez was forced to make Simon his Saturday starter. The UofA mens baseball team extended their home winning streak to four by beating the Loyola Marymount Lions 12-2 in front of a crowd of almost 800 on a hot Saturday night at Sancet Stadium under a full desert moon. As quickly as Preston Guilmet put the Wildcats (23-23) in an early 1-0 hole, he and the Arizona bats, came to the rescue. Guilmet (5-4) went seven strong innings giving up five hits combined with six strikeouts. Preston won his third straight game for the first time since the spring of 2007. Loyola Marymount (29-22) pitcher Lee Childs spent this Saturday morning graduating with his class in Southern California. He and several other teammates arrived to Tucson by plane after commencements commenced. Childs (7-1) was delt his first loss of the season by a barrage of hitting from the usual, and even the unusual suspects. Perennial Wildcat star (and defending Pac-10 POW) Dillion Baird went 4-5 with three runs batted in. Loyola High School alum Steve Selsky had 3 RBI’s in his first two at bats, including going yard for his fifth home run on the season in the bottom of the fifth inning. Kyle Stiner went 3-5 with three RBI and two runs scored from the ninth spot. Roberts was replaced in the fifth inning after giving up eight runs on 12 hits with seven strikeouts. When Wheeler replaced Roberts, the Wildcat men were in the middle of a scoring spree. The Wildcats went wild for two runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Without missing a beat, Arizona scored three runs in the sixth and seventh inning. The Lions were only able two score two runs (once in the first and once in the eighth) on six hits. Bryce Bandilla and Joe Allison combined for two innings of scoreless relief for the streaking Wildcats. Coach Andy Lopez, on the ‘Cats first baseman “you probably won’t see Dillion Baird in a Wildcat uniform next year. I am really happy for him.” Arizona will play two more against LMU Sunday and Monday night at Sancet before closing out the season with seven must win Pac-10 games against Washington and Arizona State in Tucson and then hitting the road to face Oregon to close out the season. It should also be noted, that Brad Glenn moved into ninth all time on Arizona’s most games played list (209) on a night when he went 1-5 with one RBI. Here we are again, another start to another March Madness and a familiar face is once again in the running for a Final Four berth and yet another National Championship. In the event you haven't heard, the Arizona Wildcats have been chosen by the tournament selection committee to continue their season and compete for a title. Arizona earned a 12 seed, the lowest seed in history for the school (previously a 10 seed was lowest) and is pinned against Utah in a very win-able first round game. Also this is the 25th straight season that the Wildcats will be participating in the tournament, second all time to North Carolina's 27 (1975-2001). Enough with this history lesson. Let's be frank here, I, as well as many others, felt that the Wildcats had little to no chance to play in this post season tournament (I had them in the NIT). An 0-3 record to rival Arizona State including a loss in the first round of the Pac 10 tournament, a .500 record in conference play at 9-9, a 2-9 road record and finishing the season losing 5 of 6 doesn't spell dancing in March. But what the committee might have seen was the glimmer in Arizona's season. The number of impressive key wins early in the season (SDSU, Kansas, Gonzaga, Washington, USC and UCLA) a 17-3 home record, a notable 7 game win streak and a trio of players that could beat any team on any given night. Now, a lot of skeptics will say that Arizona got in because the committee did not want to see both Kentucky's (17 year) and Arizona's (24 year- now 25 year) win streaks come to an end in the same season. Others say that schools like Creighton, St. Mary's or Penn State were snubbed due to the prestige and honor that Arizona brings to the tournament and not necessarily its basketball play. But supporters will contend that just because Arizona's key wins came early on in the season, doesn't discount their importance. This counts as the second consecutive year that the Cats have been a bubble team that got in surrounded by controversy (getting in over ASU despite a head to head record of 0-2 a year ago). Five years ago, the idea of Arizona being a bubble team, let alone a controversial bubble team, would have been unthinkable. This just goes to show the decline of the Silver Fox (Lute Olson) and the poor choice in his replacements. Yes, both coaches led the Cats to tournament berths, but the fashion in which Kevin O'Neill and most recently Russ Pennell went about business, going 0-5 against ASU, finishing 7th and 5th in conference and requiring a miracle from the gods of college basketball to make the tournament, have stained the name of Arizona as a national power and as an elite program. On the bright side, the next Arizona head coach will be a marquee name such as Rick Pitino, Bruce Pearl, John Calipari or Mark Few just to name a few (no pun intended). But names like these will bring Arizona back to where it belongs, a perennial national power, THE elite program in the Pac-10 and correct its place among the college basketball teams in the state of Arizona. Looking forward, things look bright for the Wildcats with several key recruits on the way and a high profile coach heading the program, I look for Arizona to return to the top of the Pac-10 and leave no doubt for the committee to include the Cats in next years version of March Madness. Oh, and just as a playful tidbit, the last time Arizona finished 5th in the Pac-10 they won the 1997 National Championship. Is it in the cards for this years squad? I don't know but it should be fun to watch. Beardown Cats! It was said at the end of the epic battle between Arizona and Arizona State this past Sunday, that "there were no losers here tonight.” Sitting here in the aftermath, I am having a really hard time digesting that. In a game when winning ment taking huge strides towards capping off their 25th consecutive run to the Big Dance in impressive fashion, losing could lead to the Cats being a no show at the NCAA Championships for the first time since Ronald Reagan was the Commander-in-Chief. There are a couple things that happened as a result of the Sun Devils back-to-back season sweep of the Wildcats that can be interpreted as “losing”. Right off the bat, UofA is again in the middle of Pac-10 with only a very out side shot of claiming the regular season title. Arizona faces tough road games against Wazzu and Pac-10 leading Washington. Then the Wildcats come back home to face Stanford and California, both whom defeated Russ Pennel’s club in the first week of January. The Wildcats will have to win out and have a lot of help from UW and ASU down the stretch. Aside from that major stumble, Arizona may have lost its wave of momentum that had been building for the last month. Ever since the Aubrey Coleman incident, the Wildcats had been playing like a team possessed. Scoring over 80 points five times during a seven game win streak that brought them from 2-5 in conference play to a commendable 8-5. It was assumed that if the men from Tucson kept winning they could ride this “wave” all the way to a regular season Pac-10 title, maybe a Pac-10 tournament championship and even a possible top five seed in the end of season NCAA National Championship tournament. Now the Cats will have to pick up the pieces from the heartbreaking loss to State that saw UofA blow a lay-up, a put back, and commit a turn over in the last 14 seconds that would have given them a chance to tie the ball game. If Arizona can learn from their mistakes (i.e. failing to close out shooters on three point shots) and play like there is no tomorrow then I believe that they can finish out the season in a respectable manner and set themselves up to return to the tournament once more where they belong. All that aside, I don’t want people to believe that the Arizona Wildcat season is over. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Wildcats are lead by a veteran core in Chase Buddinger, Jordan Hill and Nic Wise. All of whom will probably go in the first round of the NBA draft this June. They have been there before and they can pass along their knowledge and experience to guys like Kyle Fogg and Zane Johnson, who have both proven to be very effective role players. Don’t lement Wildcat faithful, the best of the Wilcats push to extend the nations longest active streak of tournament appearences has yet to come. Bear Down This weekend KAMP Sports Radio will be the exclusive home for live radio broadcasts of the Arizona Cactus Classic. The Arizona Cactus Classic is a chance for the nation's premier talent to take center stage at McKale Center for the weekend. KAMP Sports will provide play-by-play and analysis from McKale Court 1 and interviews throughout the weekend. For more information log on to azcactusclassic.com. For more info on Andrew Hemminger's book, Destination Basketball, please go to destinationbasketball.com. Hemminger's interview was on 2 guys and a mic with Emma Kielby, Zack DiMaggio, and Scott Karpen on Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 6 pm. College Football Pick ‘em 9) Florida (4-1, 2-1) vs. 1)LSU (5-0, 2-0) 4) Ohio St. (5-0, 2-0) vs. 23) Purdue (5-0, 1-0) 10) Oklahoma (4-1, 0-1) vs. 19) Texas (4-1, 0-1) at Dallas (Cotton Bowl) 25) Nebraska (4-1, 1-0) vs. 17) Missouri (4-0, 2-0) Kansas (4-0, 0-0) vs. 24) Kansas St. (3-1, 1-0) Arizona (2-3, 1-1) vs. Oregon St. (2-3, 0-2) 20) Cincinnati (5-0, 2-0) vs. 21) Rutgers (3-1, 3-1) Here is my pick for Thursday's showdown between South Carolina and Kentucky. Saturday's games will be posted later. 8) Kentucky (5-0, 1-0) vs. 11) South Carolina (4-1, 2-1) Below are my picks for 12 games for college football this Saturday. Come out to Zona Zoo's tailgate this Saturday between 4-6 to hear KAMP sports breakdown the game live where you can come and talk on the radio about the upcoming game. Also, EA Sports will be giving away free things, including games, and if you pick more games correct than I do you will be entered to win an EA giveaway, which inlcudes EA Sports NCAA College Football '08. Good Luck. Arizona vs. Washington St. Cal at Oregon Michigan St. at Wisconsin Alabama at Florida St. Brigham Young at New Mexico UCLA at Oregon St. Clemson at Georgia Tech Iowa St. at Nebraska Notre Dame at Purdue Penn State at Illinois Air Force at Navy Kansas St. at Texas |
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