Arizona baseball holds off GCU for first midweek win of season
A week ago, after another poor Tuesday performance in a home loss to New Mexico, Chip Hale floated the idea of cancelling some upcoming midweek games in order to keep his pitching fresh for the weekend. Whether that plan is still under consideration is unknown, but it was evident Hale wasn’t going to pass up a chance to beat a nemesis during his coaching tenure. Arizona beat the Grand Canyon 5-4 on Tuesday night at Hi Corbett Field, its first midweek win of the season in five tries.
The Lopes had won 7-5 in Tucson earlier in March, their 10 th victory in now 15 tries since Hale became coach in 2022. “They just seem to come down here, or when we’re up there, they’re very comfortable,” Hale said. “And we’ve got to get that comfortability back.
We have to feel like it’s our game to win. ” Arizona (9-15) led 5-0 after three innings, getting a solo home run from Tony Lira , three RBI from catcher Roman Meyers and an RBI from Mathis Meurant , who had the first 3-hit day of his career. But despite getting eight more baserunners the rest of the way the Wildcats couldn’t add to their lead, leaving the bases loaded twice.
“We had a lot of opportunities to add on,” Hale said. “Two strike at-bats are getting better and better season goes, but we’ve got to do more damage with guys on base. We just got to get that 2-out hit.
We’re not getting that right now. ” That allowed GCU to cut away at the lead, using a pair of 2-run homers to get within 5-4. The second was off reliever Patrick Morris in the 8 th , who then had the tying run on 3 rd base with two outs after center fielder Carson McEntire dove for a low liner and missed it, but despite going 3-0 got an inning-ending strikeout.