SURPRISE, Ariz. — Marco Gonzales was as good as advertised Friday.
The Gonzaga left-hander, rated as one of the top pitching prospects in college baseball, threw a complete-game shutout while leading the Bulldogs to a 3-0 victory over Arkansas at the Coca-Cola Classic. The No. 2 Razorbacks fell to 0-2 in the four-day event following its one-run loss to Arizona State on Thursday.
“It means a lot for our whole team to win,” Gonzales said. “We finally put everything together. We were a little streaky to start off the season, but this is positive for us. I felt good, and it’s a positive outlook for the season to start like that.”
SATURDAY'S TICKET
No. 2 Arkansas (7-3) vs. No. 25 Arizona State (6-2)
WHEN: 5 p.m., Central
WHERE: Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Ariz.
PITCHING MATCHUP: Arkansas: Trey Killian (RHP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA). Arizona State: Ryan Kellogg (LHP, 2-0, 1.00)
Gonzales struck out nine and scattered eight hits as the Razorbacks (7-3) failed to produce much offense for the second consecutive game. He continually fooled Arkansas hitters with his change-up in front of scouts from almost every major-league team at the spring training facility for the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.
“He made us have a bad day at the plate,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “He’s got a great change-up. I was talking to scouts before the game and they were telling me he’s probably going to be a first round pick. He doesn’t have an overpowering fastball, but he’s got incredible command.
“It was disappointing. I could see him getting after us for four or five innings, but that third or fourth time through the lineup you’ve got to make some adjustments. We tried and got some hits, but we never pieced anything together. We knew we had our hands full before we got here.”
Gonzaga (5-4) gave Gonzales all the run support he needed with a three-run sixth inning, chasing Arkansas starter Barrett Astin in the process. Astin threw 5 1/3 innings, allowing 2 earned runs on 7 hits.
The Bulldogs took the lead with back-to-back RBI singles by Cory Lebrun and Travis Forbes, and extended their lead to 3-0 on Billy Moon’s fielder’s choice.
“I left a couple of pitches up and they put good swings on them,” said Astin, who took his first loss of the season. “I was commanding my pitches early, but there toward the end I started leaving them up in the zone.”
Brandon Moore pitched 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for the Razorbacks and Trent Daniel recorded the final out in the ninth inning, stranding two Gonzaga runners after Moore threw out a base runner at the plate earlier in the inning.
Redshirt freshman outfielder Tyler Spoon led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a single to extend his hitting streak to all 10 games, but Dominic Ficociello struck out before Brian Anderson and Jacob Morris flied out to end the game.
One day after stranding 10 base runners in the loss to Arizona State, the Razorbacks stranded six more Friday. Arkansas recorded 17 hits in the two games.
“It’s been pretty frustrating,” Anderson said. “It’s not a clutch hit, we just have to string some hits together. We have a tendency to base hit and then strike out. We’ve just got to be more aggressive against the off-speed when we have runners on base.”
Arkansas had its best scoring chance in the second inning when Anderson reached with a one-out triple. Morris laid down a safety squeeze bunt in the next at-bat, but Anderson was thrown out at the plate by first baseman Taylor Jones.
With about 200 Arkansas fans encouraging him, Van Horn argued the call with the home plate umpire but to no avail.
“I thought he was safe, and I think everybody here did except the umpire,” Van Horn said. “That hurt.
“We have not scored enough runs and left runners on, but when you think about it, good pitchers bear down when there are runners in scoring position. When you have runners on with less than two outs, that’s when the good ones go to work.”
The Razorbacks will face Arizona State again at 5 p.m. today at Surprise Stadium. The Sun Devils (6-2) beat Pacific 8-1 on Friday.
SHORT HOPS
Friday’s game was held at a side field in the Surprise facility with about 100 bleacher seats. Most of an estimated crowd of 400 fans stood behind home plate, and Arkansas’ pitchers sat on a grassy knoll down the foul lines because there wasn’t enough room in the dugout. ... Tyler Spoon’s 10-game hitting streak is the longest for a Razorbacks freshman. ... Freshman Isaac Hellbusch made his first career start ahead of Eric Fisher.
Sports, Pages 19 on 03/02/2013