Information provided by Arizona’s media relations department
Arizona used three home runs, two by Daniel Susac, to power past Oregon in the opening game of the inaugural Pac-12 baseball tournament Wednesday morning at Scottsdale.
The Wildcats (36-21) move on in the winners bracket and will play the winner of the Stanford/Arizona State game on Thursday at 4:45 p.m.
Oregon (35-22) plays an elimination game Thursday at 9 a.m. against either ASU or Stanford. A complete Pac-12 Tournament bracket can be found here.
Arizona earned the first ever win, hit (Chase Davis second-inning double), and home run (Garen Caulfield in the second inning) in tournament history.
The Wildcats managed leads of 3-0 and 4-2 before the Ducks grabbed a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth.
A bases-loaded hit-batter and a sac fly off the bat of Davis in the top of the seventh gave Arizona the lead back.
Susac’s second home run of the game, a two-run shot over the bullpen in left field, gave Arizona some much-needed insurance in the top of the ninth inning. He now has six career multi-home run games in his Arizona career.
Starting pitcher Dawson Netz, brother of Arizona softball pitcher Devyn Netz, made his first start since April 12, returning from an arm injury. He worked 2 2/3 innings and allowed just two runs on two hits. He did not factor into the decision.
Arizona’s bullpen was instrumental with left-handers Javyn Pimental (1 1/3 innings) and Eric Orloff (2/3 innings), along with right-hander Quinn Flanagan (2 innings), posting scoreless outings. Orloff (2-2) was the winning pitcher.
Righty Trevor Long pitched the ninth inning for the Wildcats and earned his sixth save of the season.
Susac finished 3-for-4 with three runs, two home runs and three RBIs. Caulfield was 2 for 3 with a home run and two RBIs and Davis was 2 for 4 with two RBIs.
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