Arizona baseball played their first fall exhibition game Thursday night against Mexican baseball team Naranjeros de Hermosillo, winning 7-1.
The Wildcats game was a part of the Mexican Baseball Fiesta, a four-day event at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium at Kino Sports Complex in Tucson from Oct. 3 to the 6.
Arizona’s game was at 8:00 pm on the first night of the festival. Mexican teams Jalisco and Obregon playing the game before the Wildcats.
The Mexican Baseball Fiesta has been in Tucson since 2011 with the Arizona team playing in the tournament constantly. The Fiesta has a very live atmosphere with a band playing in the stadium throughout the duration of the games.
Arizona Men’s Basketball Coach Tommy Lloyd threw out the first pitch to legendary Arizona softball coach Mike Candrea to start the game.
The games during the festival are usually only seven innings long, but Arizona head coach Chip Hale requested for the Arizona game to be a nine-inning game, so he could get more of his pitchers into the game.
That’s exactly what Hale did as nine different Wildcat pitchers played in the game, including many newcomers.
“They’ve been looking good, we got some power arms, some really good stuff. We’re excited to get them in the spring,” said Hale.
Mason Russell, a Left-handed pitcher who was drafted by the Reds in the 2024 MLB draft, chose to come to Arizona instead of going to the MLB and made his Arizona debut with an impressive scoreless inning.
Standout on Offense for the Wildcats was junior infielder Maddox Mihalakis, who got on base a couple times earlier in the game, before hitting a homerun to right field to give Arizona a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning.
“It was good to come out here and get some good swings off. This is a really good opportunity for us and our team to get out here in front of fans and it’s a good start to the fall,” Mihalakis said.
Arizona’s next exhibition game will be on Oct. 12 against Pima Community College at Hi Corbett Field, before wrapping up fall ball on the 18 against Central Arizona College.
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