Arizona baseball recap: Wildcats open season with 6-0 win over Eastern Kentucky Colonels

A dominant pitching performance to start 2017

The Arizona Wildcats are off to a 1-0 start in 2017 thanks to seven dominant innings from senior left-hander JC Cloney.

Cloney and the Cats took down the Eastern Kentucky Colonels by a score of 6-0 Friday night at Hi Corbett.

After throwing sixteen consecutive scoreless innings in the 2016 College World Series, Cloney pushed that streak to 23 on Friday. He only allowed one hit on the night, and that was to the very first batter of the game, which was a double down the left field line.

The offense got things started in typical Arizona fashion right out of the gate. Left fielder Mitchell Morimoto was hit by a pitch to start the game, and was then moved up to second on a sac bunt by right fielder Cal Stevenson.

Jared Oliva capped off the outfield triple threat with an RBI single to left, giving Arizona the 1-0 lead.

Morimoto would score again in the third inning on an Oliva double play ball. Arizona’s left fielder finished the game 2-for-3 at the plate with the HBP.

The main chunk of the offensive output came in the sixth inning. EKU put in Alex Hamilton in relief of starting pitcher Jack Piekos. Hamilton struggled with his command early, and also didn’t get the help he needed behind him thanks to an error by the shortstop to the start the inning.

JJ Matijevic followed that error up with a single to center, which brought up highly-regarded freshman Nick Quintana.

The freshman third baseman had been hitless in his first two collegiate at bats to that point, but roped a double down the left field line to bring in Oliva.

Kyle Lewis added an RBI of his own, stroking a single to right field.

With runners on the corners, Lewis took off for second, and when the Colonels catcher tried to gun him down, Quintana bolted home from third and score easily, giving Arizona a 5-0 lead.

After Cloney was removed, Seve Romo made his Arizona debut by striking out the side in the eighth.

In the bottom of the eighth, Arizona tacked on some more insurance. Cory Voss, who had been 0-for-3 in his Arizona debut, went the other way with a pitch on the outer half for a hooking two-out triple down the right field line to bring in Quintana.

Romo gave up a double to Daniel McFarland in the ninth, who ended up with EKU’s only two hits of the night. But McFarland was stranded on third base to end the game.

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Arizona and Eastern Kentucky meet again on Saturday at 1 PM MT. The game was moved up from 6 PM due to impending weather. The Wildcats will start RHP Tylor Megill, and EKU will start Max Ford. Be sure to check out our series open thread for live updates and whatever you want.

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