An explosive sixth inning for No. 21 Arizona propelled the Wildcats to a 7-2 win over Stanford and a sweep of the series on Sunday afternoon at Hi Corbett Field.
After being down 2-1 through five-and-a-half innings, Arizona (29-17, 17-7 Pac-12) scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth to take its first lead.
The rally began when Garen Caulfield reached base on a throwing error to first, moving Mason White to third with no outs, prompting a pitching change for Stanford. Joey Volchko relieved Stanford starting pitcher Nick Dugan, who had held Arizona hitless through three innings. The first batter Volchko faced was Emilio Corona, who hit an RBI single to left field to tie the game.
Andrew Cain later doubled to left center, scoring two to put the Wildcats up 4-2 before Stanford brought in Toran O’Harran on the mound.
The change at pitcher did nothing to stop Arizona’s rally.
A three-RBI double to deep right field by Brendan Summerhill stretched Arizona’s lead to 7-2.
“I was just trying to get something up at my thighs or higher, and he threw me a changeup that kind of floated up there, and it was a good pitch to hit,” Summerhill said of the hit against O’Harran.
Arizona head coach Chip Hale said getting to Stanford’s bullpen this late in the season was a big reason for the rally.
“One thing we did, even though we didn’t really hit well against Dugan early in the game, we saw a lot of pitches. So, then he has to come out of the game, and you get in the bullpen, and those guys are tired this time of year,” he said. “Our guys know the same thing. We saw it on Tuesday against Grand Canyon. The bullpens are taxed, so when you get in there, that’s where you’ve got to make your hay.”
Corona said the lineup was confident they would eventually break through at the plate after a slow start against Dugan.
“The whole message throughout the entire game was just stay in it and keep us close within striking distance because we knew that we were going to get to them at one point,” he said. “It didn’t happen in the first couple of innings, but just sticking with our plan and you saw the results. We got to them.”
Stanford (20-25, 11-13 Pac-12) scored two runs in the top of the second to take an early lead off a pair of RBI singles from Brandon Larson and Brady Reynolds.
Arizona got its first run and first two hits of the game in the bottom of the fourth, one of which was an RBI groundout to second from Maddox Mihalakis that brought Mason White home, who had singled earlier, narrowing Stanford’s lead to 2-1.
Cam Walty (7-1) pitched seven innings with three strikeouts and a walk, allowing two runs on nine hits.
Arizona plays a non-conference game at Arizona State (25-23, 13-13 Pac-12) at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
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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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