The 14th-ranked Arizona baseball team captured its fifth Pac-12 road series victory of the season with a 6-1 win over Southern California on Sunday at Dedeaux Field.
The Wildcats (36-16, 18-9) won for the sixth time in their last seven games, all on the road, making this the first time since 2005 that they've won all of their conference road series.
UA goes into the final series of the regular season next weekend alone in second place in the Pac-12 standings, just one game behind first-place Oregon. The Ducks finish on the road at Oregon State, while Arizona plays host to Arizona State beginning Friday.
Wildcat starter James Farris improved to 6-3 on the season by allowing just one run in 6 1/3 innings of work. The right-hander scattered six hits, walked one and struck out three.
USC (23-27, 8-19 Pac-12) opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when senior catcher Kevin Roundtree hit just the second home run of the season off Farris, a leadoff solo shot to right field.
Arizona came right back to tie the score in the top of the second. Robert Refsnyder drew a walk and Seth Mejias-Brean and Joseph Maggi followed with singles to load the bases before Refsnyder scored on a passed ball.
UA plated four runs in the third with the help of two USC errors. Joey Rickard and Johnny Field led off with singles before Alex Mejia reached on an errant throw on his bunt attempt. One out later, Mejias-Brean drew a bases-loaded walk to push across Rickard and make it 2-1.
Bobby Brown followed with a two-run single to right field that knocked in Field and Mejia, and with two down, Mejias-Brean scored when Joseph Maggi’s grounder was booted by second baseman Andres Rodriguez, giving the Wildcats a 5-1 lead.
Arizona added an insurance run against the USC bullpen in the seventh inning. Brandon Garcia, who moved from designated hitter to the mound, hit a batter and walked two to load the bases before he was replaced by Matt Munson. Munson gave up a bases-loaded RBI single to Robert Refsnyder but escaped further damage to keep the score 6-1.
The Wildcats worked themselves out of a couple bases-loaded jams, too.
After setting down 10 in a row, Farris worked himself in and out of a jam in the bottom of the fifth. Garcia led off the bottom of the fifth with a double down the right-field line before Kevin Swick was hit by a pitch. Two outs later, Farris’ first walk of the game loaded the bases, but he was able to skirt trouble with an inning-ending groundout off the bat of James Roberts.
Farris gave up a pair of singles in the seventh inning before being lifted with one out. Mathew Troupe came in and sandwiched a single with a strikeout and a groundout as the Trojans left the bases loaded for the second time in the game.
Troupe closed out the game with 2 2/3 shutout innings. The right-hander, who tossed five shutout innings in his first career start last Wednesday at Arizona State, scattered three hits and struck out three in relief. He did not issue a walk.
USC starter Stephen Tarpley (5-3) pitched six innings and was charged with five runs, two earned, on seven hits. He struck out five and walked four.
