Arizona baseball drops to 0-5 after 12-inning loss to UConn
· Yahoo Sports
The worst start to a season in school history got even worse on Thursday night.
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Arizona lost 6-4 in 12 innings to UConn at Hi Corbett Field, dropping to 0-5 and extending its losing streak to seven dating back to last year’s College World Series.
“It’s shameful for this program,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “I feel bad for our alumni, I feel bad for student body, and this is on me. I’m the head coach, and we’re gonna have to go back to drawing board and find out a way we can win some games.”
UConn, which was also 0-4 entering the start of the 4-game series, scored three times with two outs in the top of the 12th off reliever Corey Kling. Arizona got one back in the bottom of the inning on a 2-out RBI double by Carson McEntire but Beau Sylvester struck out representing the potential tying run.
Arizona forced extra innings by rallying from down 3-0, tying it in the 7th on back-to-back 2-out doubles by seniors Maddox Mihalakis and Andrew Cain. Mihalakis had been 1 for 20 with 11 strikeouts before that hit.
Luc Fladda allowed two runs in 5.2 innings, the longest start by an Arizona lefty since Jackson Kent went six innings at Utah in May 2024. The Tulane transfer was the victim of some bad luck in the field but did not allow a walk, the first UA starter to avoid a free pass this season.
UConn took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd via a pair of hits that should have been caught.Cain lost a ball in the twilight, resulting in a double, then a liner to right center saw Easton Breyfogle and Caleb Danzeisen collide and lead to an RBI triple. Breyfogle, who had missed the first three games of the season with a shoulder injury, had to come out after reinjuring that shoulder and will have an MRI on Friday.
The Huskies made it 3-0 in the 6th on back-to-back 2-out hits off reliever Evan Brandt.
Arizona got on the board in the bottom of the 6th on a 2-out double from Beau Sylvester then tied it in the 7th. The Wildcats had a chance to walk it off in the 9th, with a runner on 2nd and 1 out, but Mihalakis and Cain both flew out.
Lefty reliever Patrick Morris threw scoreless innings in the 8th, 9th and 10th, striking out four, before Kling came on for the 12th. The South Florida transfer fanned the first two batters before giving up four straight singles, with a throwing error on a botched pickoff attempt thrown in for good measure.
“It was interesting, wasn’t it,” Hale said of Kling’s outing. “Two strikeouts, and then he shakes off the coach to throw his pitch and gives up a hit, and then it’s like (four) hits in a row.”
Arizona will send junior righty Owen Kramkowski to the mound Friday at 6 p.m. Kramkowski lasted only 3.2 innings in his season debut last Friday against Stanford.