TUCSON, Ariz. – Arizona scored one run in three of the first four innings and added late insurance runs to top the Milwaukee baseball team 9-1 on Saturday afternoon.
 
"That was a better game than the scoreboard dictates," head coach Scott Doffek said. "I thought their defense was really a game changer. We could have easily scored five or six runs but have to give them a ton of credit. When you play a complete team like this, you have to be clean on both sides of the ball and that's our goal tomorrow."
 
The Panthers totaled nine hits, all singles, but the Arizona defense made solid plays to keep MKE at bay.
 
No. 11 Arizona (6-1) plated the run in the bottom of the first, taking advantage of a single and a pair of wild pitches from Panthers' starter AJ Blubaugh.
 
The sophomore surrendered a homer in the third and an RBI double in the fourth as the Wildcats jumped ahead 4-0 through four innings.
 
The Wildcats added four RBI singles and a solo home run to score two in the sixth and four more in the eighth, pushing their advantage to 9-0 before MKE (3-3) got on the board.
 
Jack Thelen singled in Andrew Jimenez, who lifted a pinch-hit single to right field earlier in the eighth inning, but that was all the Panthers could push across.
 
Blubaugh finished with seven strikeouts and one walk across six complete innings, allowing four earned runs.
 
Keagon Kaufmann made his collegiate debut and allowed four earned runs on five hits in 2.0 innings pitched.
 
Milwaukee and Arizona will meet for game four of the series tomorrow from Hi Corbett Field with first pitch scheduled for 11:00 am.
 
Follow along this season with the Panthers on Twitter and Instagram.