Arizona had arguably its worst performance of the season on Tuesday night, losing 12-9 at home to a New Mexico State team that hadn’t won a game away from home in nearly a year. But the beauty of baseball is there’s almost always another game right around the corner, and this week the break is weekend comes even quicker.
The UA hosts UCLA in a 3-game series beginning Thursday night at Hi Corbett Field, the series moved up to avoid playing on Easter Sunday.
The Wildcats (10-13, 4-5 Pac-12) are still searching for consistency across the board, which has resulted in seven losses in the last 10 games and no win streak longer than three. At home they’re just 5-4, including 1-2 in the league after dropping a series to ASU two weeks ago.
In Pac-12 play the issues have mostly been with hitting, as Arizona’s .266 batting average in league games is sixth. The 3.79 ERA is second only to Oregon State, and could be where the UA has an edge over UCLA (10-12, 4-5) and its 6.20 ERA in conference play.
The key will be continuing to get strong starting pitching, which has been the case through league play. The trio of left-hander Jackson Kent and righties Clark Candiotti and Cam Walty have gone 3-3 with a 3.38 ERA in nine Pac-12 starts, striking out 57 with 18 walks in 50.2 innings.
UCLA, which swept Arizona in Los Angeles last March and took two of three at Hi Corbett in 2022, is 0-7 on the road this season. That includes going 0-3 at TCU, the weekend before Arizona played a single game at the Horned Frogs, as well as opening Pac-12 play by getting swept at Cal.