Top Moments of 2020: Massey, Horton Shut Down Heavy-Hitting Arizona - GopherSports.com

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Baseball | 11/10/2020 9:24:00 AM

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As the Maroon & Gold inch closer to the spring, Gopher Sports will be reliving some of the team's most memorable moments from the abbreviated 2020 season. Up next, we have Minnesota's Feb. 17 defeat of the Arizona Wildcats, which concluded a four-game opening weekend road trip in Tempe, Ariz.
 
For the Gophers, the clear highlights were the pitching performances of J.P. Massey and Bubba Horton. Making his first start of the 2020 season, Massey baffled Arizona hitters for the first 4 2/3 innings of the contest, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out seven Wildcats.
 
The outing signified new single-game career highs in both innings pitched and strikeouts for Massey. Although he didn't qualify for the win, Massey exited in the bottom-half of the fifth inning with the Gophers holding a 3-0 lead.
 
During the third-through-fifth innings, Minnesota plated one run apiece in each frame. In the third, the since-graduated Jordan Kozicky drove in Ronald Sweeny with a sacrifice fly to foul territory in right field. In the fourth, the future third overall pick in the MLB Draft, Max Meyer, singled in Chase Stanke with a line drive to right-center field. The nation's 2020 hits leader, Zack Raabe, brought the third run home, as Kozicky scored when Raabe reached via a fielding error in right field.
 
From that point on, the game got much tighter. Arizona scored two runs in the sixth inning and subsequently loaded the bases in the seventh, pushing head coach John Anderson to bring in the left-handed Horton out of the bullpen.
 
With Horton on the mound, Arizona's hopes at a comeback were effectively thwarted. The southpaw quickly worked the Maroon & Gold out of the bases-loaded jam, forcing a groundout to first base.
 
In the top-half of the eighth inning, Minnesota tacked on two more runs to push their advantage to 5-2. With the bases loaded, Sweeny drew a walk that scored Jack Kelly. Kozicky then singled to left field on the first pitch he saw, bringing in Stanke for the Gophers' fifth and final run.
 
In the two innings to follow, Horton surrendered just one hit and struck out three Wildcats. The end result was a nearly flawless, 2 1/3 inning save, marking the first of Horton's career. Collectively, the tandem of Massey and Horton combined for seven innings of shutout baseball, scattering just four hits and striking out 10.
 
Perhaps most notably, the signature victory over the typically heaving-hitting Arizona set the blueprint for breakout campaigns from both Massey and Horton. As a result of his performance, Massey would go on to secure a weekend rotation role through the remainder of the season, finishing with a 1-1 record, 4.66 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings.

Horton proceeded to open his junior campaign with a streak of 8 2/3 scoreless frames in which he struck out 16 batters and walked just two. The left-hander concluded 2020 with a 4.50 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 16 innings of work while tying for the team-high in saves with two.
 
As Minnesota looks ahead to 2021, both hurlers will hold vital roles in the Gopher pitching staff.
 
Quotable
 
"I think this team has a growth mindset. They really are hungry for information," said head coach John Anderson. "They do an incredible job of supporting one another. That's what today was about. We had better at bats and found some ways to put the ball in play. [Arizona] is a very good team. For us to hold them to two runs and pitch the way we did, it's a pretty good effort by our staff."
 
"It was a team effort today. We had a lot of guys step up," said Massey "At the end of the day, I don't really look at my own stats. Everything I did out there was because of my guys and they were behind me the whole game."

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