Arizona baseball recap: Wildcats crush Eastern Kentucky 18-4 to clinch series

Hit parade

The Arizona Wildcats’ bats got hot at the end of Saturday’s comeback victory over the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, and they stayed on fire despite all the rain that came down on Sunday afternoon.

It was a rout from the start, and Arizona ended up taking this one by a score of 18-4, clinching the series, and starting the season 3-0.

The Wildcats scored five runs in the first, which was highlighted by a two-run double by Cesar Salazar. Cameron Cannon also picked up his first career RBI with a single to left.

The lead ballooned to seven in the second inning thanks to a two-run bomb from JJ Matijevic.

After two more runs in the third, Mitchell Morimoto called Matijevic’s two-run shot with one of his own, this one going over the left field wall.

That gave Arizona an 11-2 lead at the time.

Five more runs came across in the fifth thanks to a three-run triple from Alfonso Rivas.

From there on, the Wildcats got several players game action for the first time this year, including Shane Martinez, Michael Hoard, Casey Bowman, and Sawyer Gieseke.

The sixth inning was the first that Arizona did not put up at least two runs, getting shutout by EKU pitcher Brandon Smither. They failed to score the rest of the way.

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Not to be overlooked was the pitching performance by Rio Gomez. The junior lefty got the start on Sunday and threw five innings of three-hit baseball. He allowed three runs (two earned) on 80 pitches, 54 of which were strikes.

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Notable stat lines

• Cal Stevenson: 0-for-3, 3 runs, 1 BB. He is now 1-for-9 with 7 runs scored this year
• Alfonso Rivas: 3-for-3, 4 RBI, 3 R, 2 BB
• Nick Quintana: 1-for-2, 3 BB
• Casey Bowman and Sawyer Gieseke: One single each
• Cameron Cannon: 4-for-6, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI

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The four-game series wraps up on Monday morning at 10 AM MT. EKU has a 4:30 flight to catch, so that game will need to have the pace picked up a bit.

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