Arizona baseball had won five of its last seven games, which included three road wins, entering Friday evening’s matchup with Kansas State.
Arizona
Trump to visit southern border in Arizona, blames crisis on 'Czar' Kamala Harris
Former President Trump will visit the U.S. southern border in Cochise County, Arizona, this Thursday, amid a broken border resulting in hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into the country, and a drug crisis fueled by fentanyl pushed by drug cartels.
Trump’s campaign announced his visit on Sunday, blaming Vice President Kamala Harris, who was referred to as “border Czar Kamala Harris,” for the “country’s worst border crisis.”
“Despite nearly 10 million immigrant crossings in the last three and a half years, at least 99 individuals on the terrorist watch list being released into our country, deadly drugs like fentanyl being peddled in by cartels and poisoning American communities, and a huge increase in crime and chaos caused by illegal immigrants – there is no end in sight for Kamala Harris’ border crisis,” the announcement read. “Our country continues to witness more and more violent and deadly crimes committed by illegal immigrants.”
Trump’s campaign then referred to Americans like Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, who were all allegedly killed by illegal immigrants.
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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump will visit the U.S. southern border in Cochise County, Arizona on Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Two Venezuelan nationals – 21-year-old Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and 26-year-old Franklin Jose Peña Ramos – have been charged with capital murder in connection with the death of 12-year-old Nungaray’s death. The two men crossed illegally into the U.S. earlier this year, and are accused of strangling the pre-teen to death in June.
Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant, was charged with 22-year-old Riley’s murder. Ibarra entered the U.S. through El Paso, Texas, in 2022 and was freed on border parole. He initially lived in New York City, where he was arrested for endangering a child prior to his move to Athens, Georgia.
Ibarra has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another in connection to Riley’s murder.
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University of Georgia murder suspect Jose Ibarra lived within a five-minute walk of the approximate scene where he allegedly murdered 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on Feb. 22. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital/ Laken Riley/ Jose Ibarra)
The El Salvadoran national responsible for Morin’s death, 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, was also in the country illegally, and according to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was caught by Border Patrol three times within a matter of days in January and February 2023 and kicked back to Mexico under Title 42 each time. He then successfully entered the U.S. as a gotaway, meaning he entered without being inspected, admitted or paroled by a U.S. immigration officer, in February 2023 near El Paso, Texas.
Trump’s campaign also pointed to the fentanyl crisis, saying over half of the total fentanyl pills entering the country come through the Arizona border.
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Still images from motion-activated surveillance cameras show groups of camouflaged people sneaking onto an Arizona rancher’s property after making their way around an incomplete portion of the southern border wall in May 2024. (Courtesy of Jim Chilton)
“In Maricopa County, more than three people die every day on average due to fentanyl,” the announcement read. “President Donald J. Trump knows that the people of Arizona and the rest of the country cannot take another four years of a missing-in-action border Czar who refuses to act to secure our border and protect our country.”
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Trump will be visiting the southern border in Cochise County, Arizona at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace, Bill Melugin, Louis Casiano, Greg Norman and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.
In these four-round projections, the Arizona Cardinals don’t get a tackle until the fourth round.
We are just days away from the 2026 NFL draft, and that means some final mock drafts. What direction will the draft take the Arizona Cardinals?
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy put together a four-round mock draft for the Cardinals. They go defense early but rebuild the offense for 2026 and moving forward, including landing their potential franchise quarterback.
Cardinals 4-round mock draft
Here are the players in the first four rounds Popejoy projects for Arizona.
- Round 1: Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese
- Round 2: Alabama QB Ty Simpson
- Round 3: Clemson WR Antonio Williams
- Round 4: Florida OT Austin Barber
What we think of the picks
The Cardinals want to trade out of the third pick and draft a tackle, so not getting a tackle until Round 4 seems unlikely, although they did meet with Barber. They do have options at right tackle for 2026 already on the roster.
Reese would be a great pick if they don’t trade back, as they badly need pass-rushing help off the edge.
Drafting Simpson seems inevitable at this point, so it has to be in a mock draft, although the feeling is they will need to go up into Round 1 again to get him.
Williams has speed and is almost six feet tall, but he does have short arms.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Due to significant injuries to the CB position last year which includes a shoulder surgery for Terrion Arnold, the Lions CB position scored a 6/10 need on my Lions Defensive Draft Need Rankings. Thus, an early-round selection of a young, healthy prospect like Keith Abney would not come as a surprise. He enters the draft with very low medical concern level.
Here is the excerpt from my medical report on Keith Abney:
(Ages in parentheses are at start of 2026 season and are factored into the concern level. Injury info and ages based on available public information are unverified and subject to update. Games played data courtesy of sports-reference.com.)
Keith Abney, CB (21) – Arizona State
Projected round 2-3. #43 on Jeff Risdon board Feb 19.
Concern level 0/10
There is an isolated report of a hand injury but no corroborating information. Even if the hand injury is true, that’s of minimal to no long-term concern.
His availability in his final two seasons has been perfect. Overall, Abney appears to be medically clean and is at an excellent age.
He finished college with 6 INT and 21 PBU.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Jimmy on X, @JimmyLiaoMD
In the first game of the series, Arizona (14-23, 5-11 Big 12) battled in a low-scoring affair but fell short in a 2-1 loss to Kansas State (24-12, 8-8 Big 12). The Wildcats from Tucson held the Wildcats from Manhattan at bay for a good majority of the night.
Given that Kansas State leads the Big 12 in conference play in batting, on-base percentage, and slugging, Arizona had a rather good performance, but it was not enough.
Owen Kramkowski pitched seven scoreless innings before allowing the first Kansas State run in the top of the eight. He finished with six strikeouts and kept the high octane Wildcats at bay.
“I thought the defense played well behind him too,” said head coach Chip Hale. “There’s a lot of ground balls, and we made plays where we were positioned in good places, and he was pitching in the eighth inning. That’s unbelievable.”
Garrett Hicks (3-1) came in to try and stop the bleeding for the Wildcats and did so by not allowing Kansas State to take the lead in the eighth. It was in the ninth when the lead was surrendered.
It took until the sixth inning but the first run was scored by Arizona. Andrew Cain singled to left field and after Maddox Mihalakis flew out, it was Beau Sylvester bringing Cain home with a triple through right center field.
Sylvester extended his hitting streak to eight games and it proved to be not enough to get Arizona to the finish line.
Kansas State tied the game at the top of the eight when back to back singles got runners on at first and third. Then a passed ball allowed the third base runner to come home.
Arizona had a chance to retake the lead in the bottom of the ninth after Cain singled to deep right field. With Sylvester back at the plate, it seemed like it was a perfect set up.
A wild pitch nearly got past Kansas State and Cain tried to take advantage of it and steal home. However, Kansas State was able to corral the pitch and get Cain out at home.
AJ Evasco started the ninth inning with a double for Kansas State and back to back fly outs eventually got him home to give Kansas State the lead and the win.
With eight players being left on base, Arizona will need to bring those runners in more often than not if they want to tie the series Saturday afternoon.
As a young team, the Wildcats have had to walk a very tight line between disappointment and dejection and will need to continue handling these losses with grace if it wants to turn a corner.
“It’s the way it goes, it’s baseball,” said Hale. “If we don’t handle it, we will come out tomorrow and won’t be ready to go, so hopefully they handle it.”
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