Arizona baseball: Three Up, Three Down: The Rice/Lamar road trip

Baseball is back!

College baseball is back in action, which of course means the return of Three Up, Three Down here at AZ Desert Swarm!

The Arizona Wildcats started out the season 2-0 against the Rice Owls, including a season-opening win with an emotional moment afterwards. But the Cats then dropped the second two games of the Southeast Texas road trip. Lamar ended it by pounding the snot of the ball, connecting on four home runs, including two grand slams.

So who did well and not so well in the first weekend of the season? It's that time:

Three Up:

1. Cody Ramer

The senior batted lead off in all four games, and he set the table pretty well for the rest of the team. Ramer went 8-for-16, drove in five runs, and scored one run of his own. He also walked a couple of times and had a pair of doubles. He does have Arizona's lone error of the season, a wild throw that cost the team a run against Lamar.

2. JC Cloney

After relying on junior college transfer Cody Hamlin to be the Friday night guy last year, Arizona may be relying on another JC transfer this year. But this time it's going to be JC Cloney. The College of the Canyons product threw seven innings of four-hit ball on Friday, with the only Rice run coming on a solo home run in the 7th inning. Cloney will likely be Arizona's best option to start weekend series for the foreseeable future.

3. Cody Deason

It's a Cloney sandwich with Cody bread for Three Up this week. Deason was the only effective pitcher on Monday, posting two shutout innings in his college debut. He struck out two Cardinals while allowing just one hit. I'd expect Deason to move up the pitching pecking order a bit after this one.

Three Down:

1. Bobby Dalbec

After a preseason full of awards and honors, the Arizona third baseman didn't do so hot at the plate. 2-for-15 with seven strikeouts is a bit concerning. Strikeouts have always been Dalbec's weakness, and it doesn't seem to have gone away. On the plus side he did walk three times. He also had a nice outing on the mound on Saturday, tossing 2 2/3 scoreless and recording the win after replacing Cameron Ming in a tie game.

2. Alfonso Rivas

Arizona's other two-way guy was not successful in either facet in his first weekend of college ball. Rivas was 1-for-6 at the plate, and then when he took the mound on Sunday, he gave up the deciding run on a sac fly after loading the bases in the bottom of the eighth.

3. Austin Rubick

The MLB Draft pick has been dealing with an injury all spring, and did not get to pitch in a practice until less than a week before the season started. So it was not surprising that it took until Monday to see him take the mound in a competitive game, but it did not go well. He recorded as many outs as home runs allowed (2). That also happens to be the number of walks he allowed as well. This was just one of many subpar debuts from Arizona pitchers on Monday.

The Wildcats have another weekend on the road this weekend, as they'll travel to San Diego for the Tony Gwynn Classic. Arizona's first opponent is Tulane, who they will face at 2 PM MT at Fowler Park. I will be in San Diego for these games, so be sure to check back in for our on-site coverage from the inaugural Tony Gwynn Classic.

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