<\/p>\n
Arizona starter Smith Bailey throws against Kansas State in the second inning, April 18, 2026, at Hi Corbett Field. Bailey struck out 15 in six innings, including three innings where he struck out the side. He left with a 1-0 lead, but UA ended up losing 11-1.<\/p>\n
Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star<\/p>\n
Arizona did not take advantage of the opportunity despite getting stellar starting pitching from Owen Kramkowski and Smith Bailey.<\/p>\n
Kramkowski pitched into the eighth inning Friday. He blanked K-State through seven. KSU turned two singles and a passed ball into the tying run.<\/p>\n
Kramkowski\u2019s final line: 7\u2153 innings, six hits, one unearned run, one walk, six strikeouts. Exactly what you want. Exactly what Arizona needed.<\/p>\n
Except the UA offense didn\u2019t do its part. And a gamble in the bottom of the eighth didn\u2019t pay off.<\/p>\n
Andrew Cain led off the inning with a triple. After Maddox Mihalakis struck out on three pitches \u2014 more on him in a bit \u2014 Cain tried to score on a pitch in the dirt that bounded a few feet away from KSU catcher Bear Madliak. Madliak scampered to grab the ball and shoveled it to pitcher Miles Smith, who tagged Cain just before he tapped the plate with his right hand.<\/p>\n
ESPN+ announcer Daron Sutton summarized Cain\u2019s gambit perfectly: \u201cIt was a great slide. I don\u2019t know if it was a great choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arizona did not score. Kansas State nudged a run across in the ninth vs. Garrett Hicks. Final score: KSU 2, UA 1. Close game. Tough ending. Nothing to be ashamed of.<\/p>\n
The next night, Bailey took the ball. And he was magnificent.<\/p>\n
Bailey literally authored one of the best starts in UA history \u2014 six innings, one hit, zero runs, one walk, 15 strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Only one KSU player reached second base while Bailey was on the bump. Only three reached base, period (single, walk, hit-by-pitch).<\/p>\n
Yet when Bailey exited after throwing 99 pitches \u2014 he likely would have gone out for the seventh inning if the UA-BYU series wasn\u2019t starting on a Thursday \u2014 Arizona held a minuscule 1-0 lead. Then the bullpen \u2014 perhaps the biggest factor in the UA winning 5 of 7 entering the KSU series \u2014 absolutely imploded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arizona starter Smith Bailey throws against Kansas State in the second inning, April 18, 2026, at Hi Corbett…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5081,2309,5,2325,14353,19,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,185,7273,17829],"class_list":{"0":"post-679887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-arizona-wildcats","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-baseball-teams","12":"tag-big-12-conference","13":"tag-major-league-baseball","14":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","15":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","16":"tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","17":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","18":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-mlb-playoffs","21":"tag-mlb-postseason","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","24":"tag-university-of-arizona"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116438268899129912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}