Arizona Baseball: Wildcats welcome SE Louisiana to Hi Corbett

Looking to bounce back after an unexpected split against Ball State, Arizona Baseball is back home again to take on Southeastern Louisiana this weekend.

Arizona Baseball will cap off their eight-game homestand this weekend, as they welcome the Southeastern Louisiana Lions to Hi Corbett Field for another four-game set.

The Wildcats of course split last weekend’s series with Ball State, despite having a lead in each of their games against the Cardinals.

Arizona Wildcats

Arizona finished the series against Ball State hitting .265 as a team and racking up 34 walks on the weekend. On the pitching side, Arizona posted a 3.55 ERA with 40 strikeouts.

And as Arizona welcomes Southeastern Louisiana to Tucson, the Wildcats will look to improve on those numbers against a hot-hitting Lions team. The Lions are coming off a series in which they outscored their opposition 66-0 in three games.

With this matchup being the first between the Wildcats and Lions, as expected, Arizona will send their ace to the mound in Chase Silseth to open festivities Thursday night.

The Southeastern Louisiana Lions come to Tucson with an electric offense and stout pitching that will challenge Arizona Baseball.

If you are looking for a hole in SE Louisiana performance last weekend, good luck. Against Mississippi Valley State, the Lions swept the series with scores of 26-0, 23-0, and 17-0.

In the process of putting up 66 runs on the weekend, the Lions hit .487 and drew 31 walks. Their pitching staff held MSVU to just a .103 average with 47 strikeouts, only walking nine batters.

Paced on offense by redshirt freshman Champ Artigues, the Lions’ infield hit an astounding .667 last weekend. Fellow freshman Christian Garcia and senior Eli Johnson both chipped in five hits apiece on the weekend, holding a .566 batting average currently. However, it is Jacob Burke that leads the Lions in scoring plays, tallying a home run and driving in eight RBI’s.

Will Kinzeler will be tasked with the start Friday night, squaring off against Silseth. Kinzeler’s first outing against MVSU saw him go for three innings, racking up five strikeouts, and only giving up a single hit.

Coming in out of the bullpen last weekend, Kinzeler may be used as an opener, or they could look to try and stretch him out a bit longer.

Silseth looks all the part of a next level starter early

Arguably the highlight performance of last weekend for the Wildcats was the debut of Chase Silseth. Silseth already looked prime to be tabbed as a 2021 MLB Draft pick this summer, but if he can continue to build on his Friday performance against Ball State that saw him go 5.2 Innings Pitched with seven strikeouts, and limiting the Cardinals to a .150 average on the night. With Chase, the sky is the limit.

Based on preseason rankings and reading, I already had him pegged as a day two pick in the MLB Draft in what was previously a normal draft, but I can see him developing into a top-three-round pick if he continues on the rocketed development track he appears to be on.

Pitching Matchups:

2/19 – SELA RHP Will Kinzeler (0-0 0.00) vs. UA RHP Chase Silseth (1-0 0.00) 6:00 PM MST

2/20 – SELA LHP Trey Shaffer (1-0 0.00 vs. UA RHP Chandler Murphy (0-0 3.00) 6:00 PM MST

2/21 – SELA RHP Will Warren (1-0 0.00) vs. UA LHP Garrett Irvin (0-0 0.00)1:00 PM MST

2/22 – SELA RHP Grant Upton (1-0 0.00) vs. UA RHP TJ Nichols (1-0 3.60) 10:00 AM MST

How To Follow Along:

Stream: Live stream through ArizonaWildcats.com

Live Stats: Stats also through ArizonaWildcats.com

Twitter: @ArizonaBaseball