When Brendan Summerhill suffered a broken bone in his hand in late March last season, Arizona decided to burn the redshirt of freshman Gunner Geile. Geile would go on to play in 27 games, making 16 starts in the outfield and logging 71 plate appearances in his first season of college baseball.
He was the only first-year college player to appear in the field for the UA in 2025. Through the first 12 games of the 2026 season, the Wildcats have more than doubled that amount of action from freshmen
In Tuesday’s
7-5 home loss to Grand Canyon, the UA started two true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen, including the top three batters in the order. A fifth, redshirt freshman Jackson Forbes, homered as a pinch hitter in the 9th inning.
To date, six true or redshirt freshmen have appeared in the field for Arizona, combining for 38 starts with 150 at-bats and 172 plate appearances. First baseman Tony Lira is one of two Wildcats to start every game, along with senior third baseman Maddox Mihalakis, while the last four games have seen the first three spots in the lineup occupied by guys who had never taken a collegiate at-bat until three weeks ago.
With that youth has come plenty of growing pains. Arizona sits at 3-9 heading into the final weekend of nonconference play. The 2025 team that would reach the College World Series (and have nine players drafted) didn’t lose its ninth game until the first week of April.
“I understand that we’re going to make mistakes and we’re going to be better for it in the end, but in the end means at the end of this year,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “They’re getting their experience, and hopefully it’ll pay off. We feel like they’re the best players right now for us to win.”
A massive youth movement was not the plan going into this season, even with the loss of six starters from the batting order. Injuries have played a big role, particularly in the outfield, where projected starting right fielder Chaz McNellis has yet to play after breaking his leg late in preseason while left fielder Easton Breyfogle has been limited to two games and is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury.
Two more outfielders were absent Tuesday, as Andrew Cain sat out with a sore hand and Carson McEntire woke up with vertigo. Both are expected to return to action Friday against Fresno State as could second baseman Tyler Bickers, who has been out the last four games.
When healthy, though, not all of those players have performed well. Only three hitters with at least 10 at-bats are batting .300 or better, all freshmen, while Mihalakis is at .080, Bickers at .167 and Cain at .200 with a combined nine RBI.
Lira has been the UA’s most consistent hitter, batting .320 with team highs in hits (16) and total bases (22), but the hottest guy at the plate has been utilityman Nate Novitske. The redshirt freshman is hitting .417 and has 11 hits in his last four games, earning MVP honors at the Las Vegas Classic.
“That’s just who he is,” Hale said. “He’s a contact guy, and he puts the barrel on the ball. That’s why, from day one, we felt like he’d be in the lineup somewhere.”
Like Lira, Novitske sat out last season and had to wait his turn. But Novitske was at every game, part of the travel roster as the emergency catcher and extra infielder, and that experience helped him prepare for when his turn came.
“I’m not gonna say it wasn’t frustrating, obviously,” he said. “I mean, no one wants to sit the bench just as a competitive kid. You want to be out there helping the team. But on the flip side of that, I learned so much. I was fortunate enough to travel in the playoffs last year, just to kind of see what winning takes.”
True freshmen Caleb Danzeisen and Cash Brennan were expected to see action this season, but maybe not as much as they’ve gotten. Danzeisen has started nine games, mostly in right fielder despite getting recruited as a first baseman/catcher, and he’s hit leadoff the last four games with five walks and a hit batsmen.
“He’s got a really good eye, number one,” Hale said of Danzeisen, a Phoenix-area native whose family owns Danzeisen Dairy. “Number two, usually with two strikes he’s really tough. Like he’ll foul a bunch off.”
Brennan, a 6-foot-4 shortstop whose older brother Payton is an outfielder for top-ranked UCLA, has shown promise at the plate and in the field though he did have a critical error in the 9th on Tuesday that led to two runs.
“Cash has got to continue to be consistent,” hale said. “Listen, it’s a hard thing. He’s a young freshman playing one of the hardest positions to play in the field. So there’s gonna be mistakes.”
Pitching update
Arizona will go with the same starting rotation against Fresno State (7-4) as it used in Las Vegas, with righthanders Owen Kramkowski and Smith Bailey followed by lefty Luc Fladda. Bailey and Smith combined to allow one run over 13 innings in wins last weekend, while Kramkowski has struggled in his three starts.
The junior, who was projected as a Top 100 draft pick entering the season, is 0-2 with an 8.49 ERA. He has walked seven in 11.2 innings, after issuing only 18 all of 2025, and yielded three homers.
Bailey and Fladda both have ERAs under 3 and opposing batting averages below .200. Fladda, a transfer from Tulane, struck out a career-best nine last Sunday against UC Irvine.
In the bullpen, roles are starting to get defined. Righty Evan Brandt has been the fireman, coming in with runners on in all six appearances, while three other relievers have shown the ability to work multiple innings.
Senior righty Matthew Martinez has a 2.00 ERA with 16 strikeouts over nine innings, lefty Patrick Morris has an 0.84 ERA in six outings spanning 10.2 innings and lefty Maclain Roberts has struck out 12 and allowed two singles in seven innings of work. Roberts, a native of New Zealand who spent the previous two seasons at Pima College, struggled in the fall but has greatly benefitted from new pitching coach Sean Kenny.
“Sean has been really influential in him getting more confidence and becoming what we’ve seen,” Hale said of Roberts, who chose the UA over LSU.
