Huskies Walk-Off Wildcats Again To Complete Sweep

Sunday, March 18

Seattle, WA

1:05 PM

University of Washington

10-8, 0

Arizona

10-9, 0

Arizona

Washington

Noah Hsue collected the walk-off win for UW on Sunday

March 18, 2018 | Baseball

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By: Brian Tom

SEATTLE – Noah Hsue singled home the winning run in the 10^th inning to propel Washington to a 3-2 win and a three-game sweep over Arizona on Sunday at Husky Ballpark.

A day after freshman Kaiser Weiss walked-off the Wildcats in the ninth inning for a 1-0 win, his classmate got into the act. Hsue served a 1-1 pitch from Arizona pitcher Tylor Megill (0-2) back up the middle, scoring Weiss from second. The Mercer Island, Wash., native's hit quickly erased what had been a rough weekend at the plate for him up until that moment.

"It had been a bit of a tough weekend for me at the plate, I hadn't been doing that well," said Hsue, who was 0-for-10 in the series until that final AB. "It was pretty obvious he was going to come at me with a fastball, so I was just going to try to be on time and hit something hard."

That he did. Hsue smacked the ball under a diving Cameron Cannon's glove at second base and Cal Stevenson's throw home from center field was way too late. The hit not only helped the Huskies improve to 4-0 in extra-inning games this season, but it hopefully put a tough stretch of baseball for the Diamond Dawgs behind them.

The Huskies (10-8, 3-0 Pac-12) entered the weekend losers in five of their previous six games, while the Wildcats (10-9, 0-3) rolled into Seattle carrying a five-game win streak. But behind strong pitching, errorless defense and timely hitting, Washington was able to reverse its fortunes and start Pac-12 play with a 3-0 record as they head to Corvallis for a showdown against No. 1 ranked Oregon State next weekend.

The Wildcats entered the weekend averaging over 10 runs per game during their five-game win streak, but the Huskies pitching staff was able silent their bats for most of the series. UW pitchers gave up only three runs in 28 innings and held the Wildcats scoreless for a 24-inning stretch during the series.

For the second day in a row, the Huskies and Wildcats locked themselves in a pitcher's duel. The game remained scoreless until the seventh when Christian Jones untied the game with one swing of the bat. The sophomore right fielder hooked a 1-1 pitch from Gil Luna over the right field wall for his first homer of the season. Nick Kahle, who doubled to start the inning, scored ahead of Jones' second career blast.

The lead was short-lived as Arizona responded quickly in its half of the eighth inning. After Jordan Jones had sailed through seven innings he gave up a single and double to start the inning. He was lifted in favor of Alex Hardy, who got the next three batters in order, but Arizona was able to push both runners across the plate on a ground out and sacrifice fly to tie the score, 2-2.

"I probably shouldn't have sent him out there, that was my fault," Coach Lindsay Meggs said about the visitor's half of the eighth inning. "He was just doing so well and we felt good about it. Hindsight is 20/20, we probably should have sent Alex out there to start the inning. But he gave us exactly what we needed – a quality start."

A week after an 11 strikeout, complete game shutout versus Illinois State, Jones was solid again on the hill Sunday. He scattered five hits and did not walk a batter over seven innings and struck out four.

Hardy and Stevie Emanuels managed to keep Arizona off the board over the final three innings before the Huskies struck in the 10^th inning.

Emanuels (4-1), who picked up the win Saturday on one pitch, had to work a little harder for the victory on Sunday. He gave up two hits over the final 1 2/3 innings, including working out of a two-on, two-out jam in both the ninth and 10^th innings.

The Huskies were outhit by the Wildcats, 9-7, but were able to come up with the more timely hits. Kahle was the only UW player with multiple hits, collecting two.