Arizona Baseball falls in their exhibition game against Team USA

TUCSON, AZ – Arizona Baseball tantalized fans on Saturday evening with a little bit of exhibition baseball against Team USA at Hi-Corbett Field.

Arizona Baseball in October? Yep, you’re reading that right! Baseball action has returned to Hi-Corbett Field albeit temporarily, as the Wildcats are taking part in their Fall Baseball Exhibition schedule.

On Saturday night, the Wildcats kicked off their fall schedule as they took on Team USA in a competitive game.

Arizona Wildcats

Interesting enough, it was a bit of a reunion to kick-off the Fall Exhibition schedule, as Team USA came back to Tucson. For those that didn’t know, Team USA used to be headquartered out of Tucson, and more specifically at Hi Corbett from 1997-2003.

More interesting, it was also quite the reunion for a few former Wildcats, as slugger Bobby Dalbec and pitcher Kurt Heyer made appearances at their old stomping grounds.

Nonetheless, it was going to be a fun and competitive game that’s going to help develop this team. Arizona is of course looking to put the disappoint of the past two seasons behind them, and have been making some big changes this off-season, most notably hiring under newly hired pitching coach, Nate Yeskie.

From the start the Wildcats looked strong from the beginning, jumping out to a, strong 4-1 lead, and would later extend their lead to 7-2 through eight innings.

However, the horrors of last seasons’ pitching woes would surface again, as the Wildcats would give up five runs late in the game to Team USA, making this a 7-7 game and sending it to extra innings.

Unfortunately for the Cats, Team USA would score two more runs in the 10th inning, eventually sealing the 9-7 win. As for Arizona, they would come up just short in their upset attempt.

Now with their first exhibition game over, Arizona will have to wait to return to action when they face Cal Poly Pomona on November 9 and later San Diego on November 17.

At Zona Zealots, although we’re disappointed with the loss, we know it’s still super early, and luckily it’s a long ways until the season kicks-off in February. Nonetheless, seeing Arizona Baseball in action again makes us happy!