Arizona, behind Aaron Walton’s two home runs and a solid outing from the bullpen, rallied back to grab a 6-3 win over TCU in the series opener on Friday night at Hi Corbett Field.
Being on the road during conference play is always daunting, more so when traveling for multiple weeks.
Friday night’s home opener against TCU was the first time Arizona (32-13, 14-8 (Big 12) saw the field at Hi Corbett for a conference series since April 11-13 against Oklahoma State.
With Arizona and TCU playing for a chance to host in the postseason, winning the series is crucial for both teams.
TCU (32-14, 14-8) scored first in the top of the first inning when Sawyer Strosnider knocked a triple to center and Cole Cramer’s ground out brought Strosnider home.
That lead would hold until the bottom of the third when Walton bombed a two-out solo home run 417 feet to center field knotting the game at 1.
TCU took a 3-1 lead in the fourth off of a Nolan Traeger triple that scored Brunson and a line out by Isaac Cadena that sent Traeger home.
The Wildcats chipped away at the Horned Frogs’ lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.
With two out, Tommy Splaine hit a single to right field and Easton Breyfogle’s single down the right field line was long enough to bring Splaine home.
Splaine singled three times and each time Arizona scored.
“Felt good, just trying to complete at the plate and just find any way on for our guys,” Splaine said.
Arizona took the lead in the sixth off of a Mason White bases-loaded single to right that plated Splaine and Gunner Geile.
The two-run single took a little sting off of a bases-loaded strike out by White that ended the fourth inning.
“I actually thought his (White’s) bats were good all night,” Arizona coach Chip Hale said. “That’s what we need, we need Mason, we need Garen, Tommy, our older guys to really lead the way.”
In the eighth, with Arizona holding a 4-3 lead and Splaine on first, Walton knocked his second homer of the night and 10th on the season, a 427-foot no-doubter over the wall in center field.
“That was a great win for our team, I feel like we, I mean we needed that one,” Walton said. “That was a great win I feel like that was just one of the most complete games we played all year and really proud of everyone.”
Owen Kramkowski, getting his first Friday start of the season, went five innings allowing six hits and three runs.
“Did a great job, it’s his first time pitching on the Friday night against the number one pitcher on the other team, and he gave us five, he gave us everything he had,” Hale said of the Walden Grove graduate.
Garrett Hicks took over on the mound in the sixth, throwing two scoreless innings allowing only one hit to earn the win.
Julian Tonghini started the eighth working out of a jam to set the stage for closer Tony Pluta in the ninth.
“They did a great job… I think obviously we expect Hicks, Tonghini was a wild card there you know he came in and his stuff is so good if he can execute pitches it’s very difficult to hit him,” Hale said on his bullpen.
Pluta notched his conference-leading 11th save of the season, which also ties him for second-most in a single season in program history.
A season high crowd of 5,364 played a part in energizing the Wildcats to a win.
“It was awesome, we fed off that and if we can get that every game we’d love it,” Splaine said about the crowd. “They’re the best fans, we believe, in the Big 12 and it shows. Big night tonight, and a big part of the win.”
Game two of the series is set for Saturday at 6 p.m. in Hi Corbett.
Game Extras:
The opening game of the TCU series marks the first time former Arizona Associate Head Coach and Pitching Coach Dave Lawn, now with the Horned Frogs as an Assistant Coach and Pitching Coach, was in Hi Corbett since leaving in 2023. Lawn arrived at Arizona in 2015 under then head coach Jay Johnson and was retained when Hale became head coach in 2021.
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