Arizona baseball recap: Wildcats get swept by Utah Utes

Three innings were the difference between a sweep an getting swept

The Arizona Wildcats entered this weekend's series against the Utah Utes with "momentum", having won two-of-three against the UCLA Bruins last week, including a walk-off win to finish the series.

But momentum means jack in baseball.

Arizona went to Salt Lake City and got swept by the team that has called the basement of the Pac-12 home for the majority of their time in the conference.

It seems the Arizona team was afflicted by a spreading of the flu virus. Friday starter JC Cloney was moved back to Saturday, and Bobby Dalbec missed Saturday's game because of the illness.

Dalbec may have been affected on Friday. After taking over for Nathan Bannister on the hill with two outs in the seventh, Dalbec faced four batters, and failed to record an out. Austin Rubick needed to get the final out of the inning.

Utah scored six runs in that seventh inning off of Bannister and Dalbec, which were the only six runs they scored in a 6-3 win.

That was the theme of the weekend.

On Saturday, Arizona entered the ninth inning with a 6-2 lead. The downturn began with Rubick, who failed to retire any of the three batters he faced after coming on with a pair of runners on base. Cody Moffett was responsible for those two runners after pitching an inning.

Cameron Ming took over for Rubick, and just like the two guys before him, couldn't get the job done. Back-to-back singles ended the game, clinching a Utah series victory, and sent Arizona scrambling to try and salvage a win.

They wouldn't.

The difference on Sunday was the eighth inning. Ming was once again involved in the collapse, as well as a Cody. This time it was Cody Deason, who had faced just one over the minimum through the first seven innings of the game.

Deason gave up four-straight hits to start the eighth, which brought Ming in with the game tied at two. A two-run double off Ming would give Utah the 4-2 lead, which wound up being the final score of the series finale.

Arizona is now just 3-6 in the Pac-12, and 17-11 overall. The three losses have dropped the Wildcats from No. 20 in the RPI to No. 58, and possibly lower as more Sunday scores roll in.

Three bad innings. That's all it took to completely change how the Salt Lake road trip looks on the results. The Wildcats will look to win at least one game on this extended road trip on Monday, as they'll travel to Provo to take on BYU. That game is scheduled for 2 PM PT.

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