Utah walks off Arizona baseball for 2nd straight game to take opening Big 12 series

· Yahoo Sports

Arizona could have easily been coming back from its first Big 12 series with a sweep. Instead it’s returning home with two helpings of what might have been.

The Wildcats were walked off by Utah for the second game in a row, falling 8-7 on Sunday afternoon in Salt Lakt City. The Utes (11-6, 2-1) scored twice in the bottom of the 9th to win it after Arizona (7-12, 1-2) scored three times in the top of the inning to go up 7-5.

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For the third game in a row, Arizona tied it with two out in the 9th on an RBI double by Beau Sylvester. Jackson Forbes followed with a 2-run single for the lead.

But Utah loaded the bases with no out in the bottom of the 9th off two walks and a hit batter issued by Matthew Martinez. Patrick Morris came in and, after inducing a run-scoring groundout, gave up a 2-run single to end it.

The UA led 4-0 after two innings but squandered many opportunities to extend that lead, leaving 10 on base despite nine hits and 10 walks.

Arizona jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st on consecutive 1-out doubles by Tony Lira, Andrew Cain and Maddox Mihalakis. The Wildcats have only scored in the opening inning seven times this season.

A monster 2-run homer by Lira put the UA up 4-0 in the 2nd, a 477-foot blast over the batter’s eye at America First Ballpark.

But the offense stalled after that, despite plenty of opportunities. It stranded two runners apiece in the 4th, 5th and 6th, with a double play squandering a bases-loaded, 1-out situation in the 5th.

Utah got on the board in the 6th on a 2-run homer by Jet Gilliam, which came after a 1-out single that ended a streak of 13 consecutive batters retired by Luc Fladda. Fladda would go 7-plus, leaving after allowing back-to-back singles to open the 8th.

True freshman Benton Hickman came in and proceeded to allow consecutive infield singles, the second on a sacrifice bunt attempt, before getting replaced byMartinez.

Martinez got ahead 0-2 on the first batter before giving up a 2-run single to put the Utes up 5-4 before getting the next two batters. He came back out for the 9th but didn’t retire a batter and picked up the loss.

Arizona returns home for its next five games, starting with Tuesday’s nonconference game against New Mexico before hosting Texas Tech next weekend.

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