Arizona baseball recap: Nebraska hands Wildcats first loss of 2017

A shutout loss at that

In seven of their first ten games in 2017, the Arizona Wildcats came from behind to win, resulting in a 10-0 start.

However, they were unable to make it eight of eleven.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers, who had struggled to a 2-6 record to this point in 2017, shutout the vaunted Arizona offense on Sunday in Frisco, TX, picking up a 1-0 victory.

Nebraska rode the efforts of two pitchers on the day. Jake Meyers spent the first five innings missing Arizona bats with his breaking ball, then closer Chad Luensmann picked up a four-inning save, surrendering just two hits in innings six through nine. It certainly didn’t hurt that Jay Johnson emptied the left-handed hitting portion of his bench in the final frames, which is a decidedly less-talented group.

Rio Gomez got the start on the mound for the Wildcats, and he was impressive yet again. He lasted seven innings, giving up just one unearned run on seven hits.

The one run came in the first.

Mojo Hagge led off the bottom of the first with a single to left on a 2-2 pitch. He would then move up to third thanks to an errant pickoff attempt by Gomez.

Luis Alvorado would follow that up with a single down the right field line, allowing Hagge to score.

Gomez shut down the Huskers for the rest of that inning, and really the game.

The story of this one on was the lack of hitting with runners in scoring position. The Wildcats had plenty of opportunities to score, but could not capitalize on a wet, rainy day in Frisco.

Arizona finished the day 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and just 2-of-16 with runners on base at all. On the flip side, Nebraska was 1-for-2 w/ RISP thanks to that first inning single. The Huskers never had an at bat with a runner beyond first base after the second inning.

Austin Schnabel was able to pick up a perfect inning pitched in this one. Mitchell Morimoto, JJ Matijevic, and Kyle Lewis all had multi-hit games.

This loss will sting because Nebraska was the worst team in Frisco — by a lot — but a big RPI-boosting opportunity is coming up on Tuesday.

---

Next up for the Wildcats is a midweek date with the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock. Texas Tech is coming off a 2-1 weekend at the Shriner’s Classic in Houston, where they notched wins over both Ole Miss and LSU. Tech is now 11-2 overall, losing games to Texas A&M and Mississippi State.

First pitch is scheduled for 5:30 PM MT on Tuesday. You should be able to catch it on a Fox Sports Regional channel or Fox Sports GO.

from Arizona Desert Swarm - All Posts http://ift.tt/2n36vlI
via IFTTT