Arizona baseball beats UConn for first win of season
· Yahoo Sports
You never forget your first, especially when it takes this long to get it.
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Arizona finally broke into the win column on Saturday night, rallying to beat UConn 5-4 at Hi Corbett Field to earn its first victory of 2026 after six losses.
“Finally we got one, and hopefully it just snowballs forward,” said catcher Roman Meyers, whose RBI single in the bottom of the 8th inning provided the go-ahead run in a 3-run rally.
It wasn’t just that the UA hadn’t won a game this season, it hadn’t led since midway through the second game. That changed when it scored twice in the bottom of the 1st without the benefit of a hit.
The Wildcats didn’t score again until the 8th when, down 3-2, it got opened the inning with consecutive hits. Freshman Cash Brennan singled to left and then scored on an RBI double by Tony Lira. Andrew Cain moved Lira over to third base with a groundout, setting the stage for Meyers to poke one over the drawn-in infield.
“The last time I saw a ball hit like that was Luis Gonzales for the Diamondbacks,” UA coach Chip Hale said.
Carson McEntire added an insurance run with an RBI single, which came in handy, because UConn (2-5) got within one in the top of the 9th via a solo home run from Jackson Marshall. That came off Garrett Hicks, who allowed two runs in 1.1 innings and left with runners on first and second and one out for Evan Brandt.
Brandt, a junior college transfer who has inherited runners in all four relief appearances, induced a fly ball for the second out and then picked up the save with a strikeout looking.
Arizona only had six hits, which was twice as many as in Friday’s 4-0 loss, but for the first time this season that number was greater than the number of times it struck out (five). The tone for better at-bats began right away as Tyler Bickers—who had missed the last three games with a sore shoulder—drew a walk and Brennan did the same.
“Way more contact,” said Hale, who coached from the dugout in this game after being at third base the first six. “They’re starting to get it, starting to be ready for the fastball, which gives them a chance on off speed pitches too. We better executed the plan.”
Arizona’s defense was also much better than Friday, even though shortstop Mathis Meurant was charged with two errors. The second ended up coming on a play that still produced an inning-ending out, as his throw up the first base line was snared by Tony Lira and fired home to Meyers to get the UConn runner who never stopped running from second.
“Just heads up baseball,” said Lira, who was 2 for 3 and is hitting .367 on a team that’s batting .211. “I did one a couple weeks ago in practice. Chip got on me a little bit because the ball went to the fence, or behind the catcher, and so it took me back to that moment. Never give up on a play, there’s always a next play.”
Meyers also threw out two runners at second, much better than in his first two starts when he was 0 for 9 before missing the next four games while in concussion protocol.
“I just want to give credit to my pitchers, they made the adjustment perfectly,” Meyers said. “They’ve given me plenty of time now to get those throws down. But also that first game against Stanford, I wasn’t just nearly as prepared as I should have been with my throws. So that’s not on the pitchers. That’s personally on me. But today, I mean, I had this whole week to prepare mentally, just because of the time off.”
Arizona will try to earn a series split Sunday at 1 p.m. MT with righty Collin McKinney set to start. Lira said he expects the Wildcats to carry over the momentum from their first win.
“We knew we had it in us, we know we’re a good team,” he said. “It was just the confidence needed to come out today. And I think we all just know who we are as a team, and it just showed out here.”