Arizona Blows Out Louisville to Advance to Tucson Regional Final

Regional action continued in Tucson, Arizona as the Arizona Wildcats faced the Louisville Cardinals. Arizona was coming off a 15-3 win over the #4 seeded Missouri Tigers and the offensive production continued on Saturday. Arizona defeated Louisville 16-4 as they scored sixteen runs on twenty-three hits. Arizona will now sit and wait to see if their next game will be a re-match against Missouri or Louisville.

Arizona set Konner Wade to the mound to start their game against Louisville. Wade pitched eight innings and gave up four runs on ten hits. He also had two walks and five strikeouts. However, Wade only had two earned runs because two of Louisville’s four runs came on a throwing error by catcher, Riley Moore. In the ninth inning, Tyler Crawford came in and pitched a scoreless inning and gave up only one hit.

Louisville sent Jared Ruxer to the mound to start the game. Ruxer only lasted two and a third innings after giving up five runs on seven hits. After Ruxer left, Louisville used three other pitchers. Dace Kime pitched two and two-thirds innings. Kime gave up two runs on five hits. He also had two walks and one strikeout. Nick Burdi pitched one and two-thirds innings and gave up six runs (five earned) on seven hits. He also had a strikeout. Finally, Cody Ege pitched the final two and one-thirds innings for Louisville. He gave up three runs on two hits and had two strikeouts.

Arizona had lots of offensive production in this game, but the key players for Arizona had to be Alex Mejia and Seth Mejias-Brean. Mejia went a perfect 5 for 5 from the plate and had three RBIs and four runs. Mejias-Brean went 4 for 6 from the plate and finished with a run and two RBIs. Another notable performer for Arizona was Brandon Dixon. Dixon only went 1 for 3 in the game, but had a huge three run home run in the seventh inning.

Louisville used a ton of bats in this game, but could not muster up the offensive production to contend with Arizona. The biggest player for Louisville from the plate was Stewart Ijames. Ijames had the team’s only RBI and went 2 for 5 with a strikeout. Louisville as a team had seven strikeouts total and only had two players with more than one hit.

Arizona will await to see who they will play in the finals of the Tucson Regional. There will be two games played on Sunday with the chance of there being a game on Monday. The first game on Sunday will be an elimination game between Missouri and Louisville. The second game will be between Arizona and the winner of the Missouri/Louisville game. If Arizona wins in their next game, they will move on to the Super Regional where they would play the winner of the Chapel Hill Regional. If Arizona loses on Sunday, there will be an elimination game on Monday night.

Sunday, June 3rd

• 4:00 p.m. (PT) – GAME 5: Missouri Tigers vs Louisville Cardinals  (ESPN3)
• 8:00 p.m. (PT) – GAME 6: Game 5 Winner vs Arizona Wildcats (ESPN3)

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