Arizona baseball: Wildcats shutout College of Charleston 6-0 to take series

The pitching staff will be just fine in the postseason

Over the course of this four-game week, we got the entire Arizona Wildcats baseball experience.

Things started with a putrid 14-13 loss to ASU on Tuesday. After traveling across the country and ace JC Cloney on the mound, the offense couldn’t get it done for him, dropping the series opener to College of Charleston.

Then the typical road trip rain delay happened, and Arizona responded with a tight 4-3 win on Saturday evening.

And on Sunday, things came full circle with a shutout performance from the Wildcat pitching staff.

Does Arizona lack pitching depth? Yes. Are they setup okay for the postseason? Also yes. This weekend proved that.

Cody Deason, who has solidified his role as the third starter in this rotation, pitched 6 ¹⁄₃ innings of six hit baseball while also walking a Cougar and hitting another. Only one of those six hits was an extra base hit, and it just so happened to be a double by the last batter Deason would face on the day. It was only the third batter of the game to reach second against Deason.

Rio Gomez entered and walked a guy, then worked to a 1-2 count against the next batter, at which point Jay Johnson decided to bring in Tylor Megill.

Going from a 6-foot-nothing lefty to a 6-foot-6 righty in the middle of an at bat seems like a difficult adjustment to make.

It proved to be just that as Megill induced a grounder to second, then a little pop up on the infield ended the mini threat by Charleston.

Megill wasn’t stellar the rest of the way, but worked out of trouble in the eighth and ninth to keep the shutout intact. C of C stranded ten runners on the day.

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Arizona scored its first run of the game in the third inning. Kyle Lewis led the frame off with a single, then stole second.

A couple of bunts by Louis Boyd and Cal Stevenson moved Lewis the final 180 feet, putting the Wildcats up 1-0.

JJ Matijevic drove home the second Arizona run of the game with a sac fly in the sixth, allowing Jared Oliva to score.

The Wildcats put up a couple of crooked numbers in the 7th and 9th thanks in large part to Lewis. He finished the day 4-for-4 at the plate (only Arizona player with a multi-hit game), scored three runs, and stole two bases. That second stolen base was part of a double steal/hit and run with Mitchell Morimoto, which led to a throwing error by the catcher in the 9th, allowing the final two runs of the game to score.

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Arizona now doesn’t leave the state for the rest of the regular season. They’ll resume conference play on Thursday night in Tempe against the Arizona State Sun Devils. First pitch for that game is scheduled for 6 PM PT, and it will be broadcast on Pac-12 Network.

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