Arizona baseball shut out at home to remain winless
· Yahoo Sports
It’s only the second weekend of the season, but Arizona is in jeopardy of letting this one get away before it even starts.
The Wildcats were shut out 4-0 by UConn on Friday night at Hi Corbett Field. The loss dropped them to 0-6 and extended their losing streak to eight dating back to last June’s trip to the College World Series, which feels like a century ago. It’s the longest skid since 2014.
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“I think it’s just gotten to the point where there’s a lot of anxiety, whether it’s new guys or the guys who played a lot here, just trying to do too much,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “And they put so much pressure on themselves. You can almost tell when guys get hits, right? When they get so excited, it’s like we’re back in Omaha or something. It’s just a base hit in game three or four or five. And so I can tell by that that they just are releasing so much anxiety out of their body. So we just got to find a way to get them to relax.”
Arizona finished with three hits, singles by Andrew Cain and Mathis Meurant and a double by Nate Novitske. Only two of eight baserunners reached third and the team struck out another 10 times, upping the season total to 80 in six games.
“We don’t look ready to hit when we’re taking some pitches,” Hale said. “We’re stuck. And that comes from anxiety. In life, anything you do, it’s hard to do, to be at your best when your body’s all knotted up.”
That frustration spilled over into the field, as Arizona was charged with three errors and made several other defensive miscues.
“How that game ended 4-0 I have no idea, we made so many mistakes on defense that are not characteristic of this group,” Hale said. “Hitting is hard, it’s the hardest thing to do in sports. We can control what we do on defense.”
The defensive issues and continued hitting struggles overshadowed another solid pitching performance by most of the staff. Owen Kramkowski struck out six over four innings, allowing two runs (one earned), while five relievers combined for 11 strikeouts. That included eight punchouts by a trio of relievers making their UA debuts.
Lefty Maclain Roberts came on with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth and struck out both UConn batters, the first on a nasty slider and the second a fastball down and away. Roberts then struck out the side swinging in the eighth.
“When you look at his numbers from the preseason, everybody pitches their way in or pitches their way out,” Hale said of Roberts, a native of New Zealand who pitched the last two years at Pima College. “He had not pitched his way in. You pitch like that, you’re gonna get yourself in another game.”
While the anxiety and frustration is evident, Hale said the effort has still been there. Making sure that remains will be difficult until the wins come.
“It’s tough for the kids,” he said. “I know they’re they want to win for the program, they want to win for the fans. They want to win for themselves. Coach Jerry Kendall was very succinct in what he used to tell us: ‘disappointed is okay, we just can’t let them get discouraged.’ They’re very close. the two words, but there’s a huge difference. When you get discouraged, it’s tough to bring them back, but disappointed is okay.”