Arizona Baseball

Arizona drops series finale to BYU

Posted on
Share
Sunset view of Hi Corbett Field (Arizona Athletics photo)

The inconsistent play, in all aspects of the game by Arizona, showed up again on Saturday.

The Wildcats were able to play an error-free game after a season-high four in Friday night’s loss and increased their hits to 10 from four but couldn’t get runners in scoring position home, dropping the series finale 8-4 to BYU in Hi Corbett Field.

After leaving 11 runners on base, Arizona coach Chip Hale said, “That’s the thing about Thursday night is we got those hits with two outs and we haven’t really done it much this year at all.”

Arizona (16-26, 7-14 Big 12), whose last Big 12 conference home series win was in May 2025 against TCU, has one last chance to grab a 2026 conference home series win when Houston comes to town May 8.

The Wildcats are currently in 11th place in the Big 12 and remain half a game ahead of Texas Tech (22-21, 6-14) for the final 12th spot in the Big 12 tournament.

BYU (22-10, 11-10) didn’t waste any time getting the hits popping. The Cougars scored three runs, including one on a wild pitch, in the top of the first inning off of Arizona starter Smith Bailey.

Bailey’s last start included him throwing a career-high 15 strikeouts in an 11-1 loss to Kansas State last week.

In Saturday’s game, Bailey struggled most of the 4 1/3 innings he was on the mound. He allowed nine hits, five runs (all earned), hit two batters, walked one and served up six strikeouts.

On Bailey’s struggles against BYU, Hale said, “He definitely didn’t have the stuff he had the other night versus Kansas State, and when he did make a mistake, they were definitely were ready for it.”

The Cougars added a run off of a wild pitch in the third inning and another run in the fifth before the Wildcats were able to get on the board.

In the bottom of the fifth, Mathis Meurant hit a double down the left field line followed by a Caleb Danzeisen 428-foot home run, his second of the season.

A bases-loaded hit by pitch and then a walk added two more runs for BYU in the sixth inning to give the Cougars a 7-3 advantage.

Arizona grabbed one run back in the bottom half of the sixth off of a single from Meurant that scored Beau Sylvester.

Meurant’s mom and brother who traveled from Paris, France, were in attendance for Saturday’s game. The senior infielder gave his family a lot to cheer for going 2 for 3 with two RBIs.

“It’s actually the first game she’s seen me in the U.S.,” Meurant said.

“I thought Mathis Meurant played beautifully today, had a lot of good at-bats. That’s great to see,” Hale said.

The Wildcats added their final run in the bottom of the eighth after back-to-back singles from Maddox Mihalakis and Jackson Forbes and a sacrifice fly by Meurant brought Mihalakis across the plate.

BYU scored one more run in the ninth to bring the final score to 8-4.

“We have to find out who is worthy of being a Wildcat,” Hale said, “We can’t do this again next year. It’s good to develop kids and we’re going to have a really good freshman class again next year too, but they’re gonna have to be ready to play and we’re going to have to do a better job of getting them ready to play against good teams.”

Arizona will travel to GCU on Tuesday for one game before heading to Kansas (32-11, 16-4) for a three-game series with the conference-leading Jayhawks.

Game Extra:

Arizona legend Scooby Wright lll threw out the first pitch in Saturday’s game three of the BYU series. More than 250 Arizona football alumni were in town for the Spring Showcase at Casino Del Sol Stadium held Saturday night.

print
Related Items:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Recommended for you

Comments
To Top