Arizona baseball gets swept at UCF, suffering another walk-off defeat in Big 12 play

Unable to slow UCF’s offense in the first two games of a three-game series in Orlando, the Wildcats’ bats went quiet Sunday in their quest to avoid a sweep.

Arizona managed just three hits in a 3-2, walk-off defeat in 13 innings at John Euliano Park.

The Wildcats got swept in a Big 12 series for the first time this season and fell to 9-18 overall, 2-7 in conference play.

Arizona returns to Tucson for a five-game homestand that will provide its own set of challenges. It starts Tuesday with a nonconference game against West Virginia and continues Thursday-Saturday with a three-game series against Arizona State.

The Mountaineers and Sun Devils are among the teams nipping at the heels of the first-place Knights, who proved that their earlier series wins over Oklahoma State and TCU were no fluke. UCF improved to 18-8, 8-1, outscoring Arizona 27-11 and outhitting the Wildcats 37-13.

Sunday’s setback spoiled superb pitching performances from Luc Fladda and Garrett Hicks.

Fladda allowed two runs on five hits across 7⅔ innings. Hicks yielded just one hit in 4⅓ scoreless frames.

Arizona trailed 1-0 entering the eighth inning, the lone run scoring on John Smith III’s solo home run in the bottom of the first.

Beau Sylvester led off the top of the eighth with a double, advanced to third on Jackson Forbes’ single and scored on Mathis Meurant’s sacrifice fly, knotting the score at 1-1.

After Forbes and pinch-runner Tyler Russell pulled off a double steal, Forbes scored on a wild pitch to give the Wildcats a 2-1 lead.

UCF responded in the bottom half. Cayden Gaskin’s two-out single drove in DeAmez Ross, who led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.

The two sides traded zeroes for the next four innings before the Knights ended it in the 13th. Gaskin doubled with one out off reliever Collin McKinney. After a strikeout and an intentional walk, pinch-hitter Stephen Chucka singled to right to hand Arizona its fourth walk-off loss in six conference road games.

The previous day featured a walk-off of a different sort. Leading 7-3 entering the bottom of the eighth, the Knights scored six runs to secure a 13-3, run-rule victory.

In the series opener Friday, Arizona trailed 6-4 entering the bottom of the seventh. UCF scored two in that frame to make it 8-4.

The Wildcats got those runs back in the top of the eighth on Forbes’ two-run homer. But Smith hit a three-run shot — his second home run of the game — in the bottom half to make it 11-6.

Inside pitch

– UA freshman Caleb Danzeisen, who has a team-best .473 on-base percentage, suffered an undisclosed injury late in Friday’s game and did not play over the weekend.

– Three Wildcats besides Forbes hit home runs: Nate Novitske, Carson McEntire and Andrew Cain.

– UA right-handers Owen Kramkowski and Smith Bailey allowed a combined 10 runs (nine earned) in 10 innings in their starts Friday and Saturday.

– The UA bullpen surrendered 14 runs in 5⅔ innings in the first two games of the series.