Clark Candiotti’s complete-game shutout guided No. 21 Arizona to a 5-0 win over Stanford at Hi Corbett Field on Saturday night.
In his second complete game of the season, Candiotti (5-2) had seven strikeouts and allowed five hits with no walks.
“I think it’s just a matter of getting ahead of hitters, and just attacking every guy to try to get him out with four pitches or less, and just let the defense work,” Candiotti said of his ability to pitch so efficiently all game. “They’ve been brilliant all year, especially tonight, but it’s just the same game over and over. Just attack every hitter.”
Arizona won a long, drawn-out game one of the series against Stanford 12-8 on Friday. Six pitchers shared time on the mound for the Wildcats, and the two teams pitched a combined 11 pitchers and had 27 hits. On Saturday, only Candiotti and Stanford starting pitcher Christian Lim and reliever Kassius Thomas pitched, and the Wildcats and the Cardinal combined for 14 hits.
Arizona head coach Chip Hale said Candiotti’s pitching and the shorter game on Saturday set the team up well for game three when Cam Walty starts.
“It was was night and day,” Hale said. “I just thought Clark controlled the game, and we always talk about, ‘like tomorrow, do we have momentum?’ Well, if Walty comes out and pitches well, then we have momentum. It’s your starting pitcher.”
Arizona (28-17, 16-7 Pac-12) took an early 2-0 lead over Stanford (20-24, 11-12) in the bottom of the first. The Wildcats scored the first run on an RBI double by Garen Caulfield. Caulfield would later score from third on a throwing error by LIm when he tried to throw Emilio Corona out at first.
Caulfield credits Arizona assistant coach Toby DeMello for helping him develop a plan against Lim, which he says helped him hit the early RBI double. Caulfield went 3 for 5 in the game.
“I was looking at a zone, and I got it early in the count and happened to put a good swing on it,” he said. “Once again, credit to coach DeMello for helping me out there and really putting together a good plan for this guy.”
In the bottom of the third, an RBI single to center from Maddox Mihalakis extended Arizona’s lead to 3-0.
Arizona tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, starting with Brendan Summerhill’s RBI double. Mason White followed Summerhill with a sacrifice fly that brought him home.
Arizona plays Stanford in the final game of the series on Sunday at noon.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com writer Kevin Murphy was born and raised in Tucson, and has followed Arizona Wildcats athletics since childhood. Murphy is a journalist product manager with the Green Valley News & the Sahuarita Sun. He has a bachelor’s degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU.
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