Air Force Academy
6-6
Arizona
12-4
Falcons Drop Series Finale at #13 Arizona
3/14/2021 6:32:00 PM | Baseball
AF pieced together nine hits on the afternoon
The Falcons still managed to string together nine hits on the day, led by a two-hit day from junior Braydon Altorfer, who smacked his second homer of the weekend, this one a solo shot. Junior Gabriel Garcia also had a pair of knocks, both singles, with a run scored.
After holding the Wildcat bats mostly at bay the night before, Arizona struck first in game two with a three-spot in the second inning to take a 3-0 lead after two frames. They added another in the third on an RBI groundout to put the deficit at 4-0 into the fourth.
The Falcons went nine-up, nine-down in the first three innings, but got the bats going in the fourth inning, as they struck for four runs on six singles, to tie the game. AF got RBI hits from junior Cayden Zimmerman, freshman Paul Skenes, senior Cole Blatchford, and sophomore Blake Covin, to knot things up.
Arizona was able to respond right away, getting a run back on a wild pitch, but AF was able to escape a bases loaded jam to keep it a one-run game into the fifth. The Falcons got a pair on in the top of the fifth, but UA was able to work out of it to maintain their lead at the midway point.
The Wildcats added to their advantage in the bottom of the fifth, striking for five more to extend their lead to 10-4 with four innings to play. They added on a pair more in the sixth to make it an eight-run deficit going into the seventh.
In the top of the seventh, Altorfer smacked a solo home run to left field, his second of the weekend in a cavernous Hi Corbett Field, to make it a 12-5 ball game into the stretch. From there, UA got two more in the eighth to finish the game with the 14-5 tally.
AF will be back in action next weekend for another Mountain West Conference series, this one against San Diego State, March 20-21.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Price, P. (1-0)
L: Shuger, Jason (0-1)
Batting:
HR: Altorfer, Braydon 1
RBI: Altorfer, Braydon 1 ; Zimmerman, Cayden 1 ; Skenes, Paul 1 ; Blatchford, Cole 1 ; Covin, Blake 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Gillman, Tommy 1 ; Garcia, Gabriel 1 ; Altorfer, Braydon 1 ; Zimmerman, Cayden 1 ; Skenes, Paul 1
HBP: Zimmerman, Cayden 1
Batting:
2B: Berry, J. 1 ; Hopson, K. 1 ; Bingham, M. 1
HR: Williams, D. 1
RBI: Kato, K. 1 ; Berry, J. 1 ; Blas, J. 2 ; Williams, D. 2 ; Bullard, T. 2 ; Hopson, K. 2 ; Bingham, M. 2
SH: Williams, D. 1
SF: Kato, K. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kato, K. 1 ; Boissiere, B 1 ; Berry, J. 2 ; Blas, J. 4 ; Williams, D. 4 ; Bullard, T. 1 ; Hopson, K. 1
CS: Boissiere, B 1
HBP: Kato, K. 1 ; Boissiere, B 1 ; Williams, D. 1 ; Bullard, T. 1
