Arizona honored the 50th anniversary of the 1976 national championship, the first in school history, on Friday night in Hi Corbett Field. The Wildcats were looking to add a victory to cap off a night filled with 70’s music, including starters choosing walk up songs that matched the era. A win on the celebratory night would also end a three-game skid for Arizona.
That celebratory ending was not to be as Texas Tech used hot bats and late-inning solid pitching to earn a 9-5 win, extending Arizona’s losing streak to four games.
“This is all a learning process. I know that there’s people and fans and supporters that aren’t happy and my message to them is we aren’t happy either,” Arizona coach Chip Hale said.
“We are going to push it and we’re going to get better as the season goes on and we’re going to make them proud of the ‘A’.”
Gavin Triezenberg’s first career start
With Cash Brennan out due to a high ankle sprain, Arizona (7-14, 1-3 Big 12) turned to another true freshman in Gavin Triezenberg.
Not the way Triezenberg wanted to get his first career start but he took full advantage of the opportunity playing well at shortstop in Brennan’s absence which impressed Hale.
“He’s played mostly third here and he was a short stop in high school so to put him back over there is a little bit tough for him, but he made the plays,” Hale said.
“He made every opportunities he had, he gloved it, he threw the ball across, I was happy for him. He’ll get some more play there.”
Triezenberg’s five plate appearances ended with no hits, but when contact was made, he hit the ball hard, getting an RBI off of a fielders choice to second base.
Injuries leave Arizona’s bullpen thin
With pitchers out due to injuries, the bullpen is running short on players, putting Arizona in a precarious situation. Starters may have to go a little longer than is optimal and some relievers may have to play multiple times each series.
“Just going to have to do the best we can. Keep guys healthy, we don’t want to hurt anybody so we have to be very careful of that.” “We are going to have to probably.. some guys will go twice a weekend.”
1976 national championship team honored on 50th anniversary
Prior to first pitch on Friday, Hale gave members of the 1976 team a tour of the baseball facilities including the Terry Francona Hitting Center.
The team was thankful for the time Hale took with them and were impressed with the facilities.
“It was great, I was really happy to see a lot of those guys,” Hale said. “They did such great things for us, just kind of opened it up. They were the first team, you know there were some teams that went to Omaha before that, they won it. A lot of these schools that come in, we have four national championships and a lot of these schools don’t have any. They started the history of national championships.”
Honoring the team that set the standard
1976 National Champions & forever Wildcats pic.twitter.com/OcDj3C1dQL
— Arizona Baseball (@ArizonaBaseball) March 21, 2026
Arizona legendary catcher Ron Hassey, representing the 1976 team, threw out the first pitch while other members stood behind him. After first pitch, the current Arizona team lined up and shook the hand of each of the members of the 1976 team in attendance.
Hassey was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 18th round of the 1976 draft, playing in the minor league for the San Jose Bees, Williamsport Tomahawks, Toledo Mud Hens and the Portland Beavers before getting called up by the Indians. He went on to play for Indians (1978-1984), the Chicago Cubs (1984), New York Yankees (1985-1086), Chicago White Sox (1986-1987), Oakland Athletics (1988-1990) and the Montreal Expos (1991).
Hassey was with the Athletics when they played in three World Series and earned a World Series ring in 1989 when the Athletics defeated the San Francisco Giants.
After his playing days were over, Hassey went on to coach for the Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals and Seattle Mariners. He also served as a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Stats Roundup
Arizona stranded 13 in the loss to Texas Tech including leaving bases loaded twice.
The Wildcats held a 4-3 lead in the fourth before Texas Tech tied the game in the fifth then scored three runs in the eighth and two runs in the 9th to secure the win for the Red Raiders.
Caleb Danzeisen continued his hot hitting going 2 for 3 with an RBI, two walks and scored twice.
Tony Lira had two hits out of four at bats, walked once and had one RBI.
Andrew Cain went 2 for 4, hit a double and drew a walk.
Owen Kramkowski, who started on the mound, went 5 2/3 innings with nine hits, three strikeouts, allowed four runs (three earned), faced 27 batters, threw 91 pitches with 66 of those strikes.
Maclain Roberts relieved Kramkowski in the sixth inning and was charged with the loss.
The Wildcats and Red Raiders (14-7, 3-1) will be back in action Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in Hi Corbett Field. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
“Just keep fighting, just to keep going. Don’t want them to get discouraged, you know, disappointed that’s ok, discouraged I don’t want that,” Hale told his team after the loss.
“Just play cleaner. We dropped a pop up again today and those types of things come back to really haunt you late in a game.”
Recommended for you
