All season long Jay Johnson has been preaching to his team that they must be able to win one run games and tight pitching contests if they want to be the eventual national champions. They did that in the Super Regional, but it finally ended up being their downfall in Omaha as they dropped their first loss to Oklahoma State yesterday in a 1 – 0 loss to Tyler Buffett and the Cowboys.
Buffett put on a virtuoso performance on the mound against Arizona as he seemed to have all the rotation one could ask his off speed pitches to have. Arizona was caught throwing the bat out hoping for contact and that led to many ground and fly outs throughout the game where Buffett never had to truly sweat on the mound. The defense around him seemed to be in the perfect spot for every ball, including a pretty Web Gem like dive in center field by Ryan Sluder that stole a potential double from Zach Gibbons in the early part of the game that practically set the tone.
It was a wonder how Bobby Dalbec would respond after a near two hour rain delay prevent the game from starting, but after Buffett opened up with a good start it was Dalbec’s turn to respond. For the most part he was wondrous on the mound with a strong showing with his high outside fastball. The pitch played a serious part in his 12 strikeouts, which was a new career high for the 4th round pick of the Red Sox. As the pitcher in the game however, the Cats were without his swing for the game and that decision by Jay Johnson may be what did the team in.
While neither offense could get much started on the dominant pitching throughout the game, Oklahoma State were able to get runners to second base every so often and eventually stacked enough hits on top of each other to get the only run of the game. Arizona however could not string together an offensive push at any point as they only had a runner reach scoring position at second base once in the entire game. Every other time Arizona found themselves with a runner on first it was shortly followed by either a force out at either base or a double play in the case of the 8th inning.
At one point it seemed as though Arizona was pressing to get hitters on the bag but it ended up being a detriment for the pitcher Dalbec as there was a stretch in the game. After a tough 4th inning where Dalbec gave up the single run and he was left in a tight jam with runners still on the bags the Cats came back and all three outs came off of early swings and a strikeout by Alfonso Rivas III that forced Dalbec back onto the mound after a long and tough out the last time out. Innings like that from the Arizona offense showed the desperation at that point, and Buffett made sure to jump on that and got the Wildcats to jump on more pitches that were out of the zone and easy grounders to his infield.
Arizona is not eliminated yet as the team will have today to prepare for a tough UC Santa Barbara team that just got done eliminating Miami in their first College World Series win in the school’s history. The loser of that game however will find themselves on the trip back home while the winner would go back to face the Cowboys on the 24th. The Guachos played the Cowboys to a 1 – 0 loss as well, which Oklahoma State became the first team to ever win back-to-back 1 – 0 games in the College World Series after yesterday’s performance. The Cowboys will be ready for the revenge game against either squad pending what the outcome of their game is.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Arizona be a little more collected and focused on the bench this time out as the team was caught doing, of all things, shampooing and styling a teammate’s hair in the middle of the game yesterday. The antics in the game against Miami may have gotten to Mediavilla but they clearly didn’t get to Buffett. Coach Johnson may try to bring his boys in a little on the bench and get them focused on the game, which may be their last if they aren’t careful and locked in early on.