Arizona
Arizona baseball’s pitching hitting stride at perfect time
“Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher” — Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver
Arizona is headed into the NCAA Tournament on a 5-game win streak, its longest since March, and the biggest question mark entering the 2025 season has become its biggest strength.
The 2-1, 10-inning win over TCU in the Big 12 Tournament final marked the fourth consecutive game in which the Wildcats (39-18) allowed one run. That hadn’t happened for the UA since 1974, when it held seven consecutive opponents to one or fewer runs.
It’s been a collective effort, but Arizona’s starters have led the charge. Sophomore Owen Kramkowski, senior Raul Garayzar and freshman Smith Bailey have combined to allow three earned runs over their last 28 innings, translating to an 0.96 ERA.
Pitching was the big question mark for Arizona headed into this season. Gone were a trio of starters who combined to throw 272 innings before each getting taken in the 2024 MLB Draft, and in their place was a starting rotation that would feature two arms making their first career collegiate start.
For most of the 2025 season, though, Arizona’s pitching staff held its own. A deep bullpen took pressure off the starters to have to go too deep, and after back-to-back wins over TCU at Hi Corbett Field in early May the Wildcats’ ERA was a respectable 4.50, only slightly above the 4.46 mark from last year’s Pac-12 regular season and conference tournament champs.
But then came a 6-game stretch in which the UA pitching struggled mightily, starting with a 13-6 loss to TCU and continuing with a disappointing home series loss to last place Utah in which it allowed 28 runs. Then came a 13-4 loss at Houston, which was hitting .220 in Big 12 play.
Arizona’s ERA had surged to 5.07. That wasn’t going to cut it in the postseason, and if the losses kept piling up just making the NCAA Tournament might have been in jeopardy.
Then came a move by pitching coach Kevin Vance that changed everything.
Vance had already swapped his No. 1 and 2 starters, moving Kramkowski to the top spot and sliding redshirt sophomore Collin McKinney back. But McKinney, a transfer from Baylor, could not go deep in games due to too many walks and hit batters, and he lost his spot in the rotation for the final weekend of the regular season.
In his place was Garayzar, who had started a handful of midweek games but otherwise was used in relief. He made his first Big 12 start on May 16 at Houston, going 4.2 innings and allowing only four hits with one run in a 14-6 victory.
The next day Bailey, the first UA true freshman to make 15 or more starts since Kurt Heyer in 2010, had arguably the best outing of his career by going six in an 8-1 win to wrap up the regular season.
Kramkowski, who had a 2.70 ERA in April that included an 8.2-inning performance at ASU, had allowed 14 earned runs in 14.1 innings in three May starts before tossing six shutout frames against BYU in the Big 12 Tournament opener. Garayzar then followed with his own six scoreless innings in the semifinal win over West Virginia ahead of Bailey allowing a run in the first but nothing else over 5.1 innings in the conference title game.
Before the current win streak, Arizona’s starting pitchers had recorded four quality starts (six or more innings allowing three or fewer runs) and that had begun to tax the bullpen. Juniors Casey Hintz and Garrett Hicks, who have combined for 50 appearances and 86.1 innings, had lost their effectiveness and were getting hit hard. Hunter Alberini, Matthew Martinez, Eric Orloff and Julian Tonghini were good some outings, not so good the other, making it hard to get the ball to closer Tony Pluta.
But over the last five games the pen has been nails, and not getting overused has likely helped their cause. Over 18 innings they’ve allowed four earned runs, and in the Big 12 final the relievers combined for 4.2 scoreless frames with two hits, four strikeouts and no walks.
But as the Weaver quote reminds us, that can all change in a blink. Last year Arizona’s starters were lights out all season, including in the Pac-12 Tournament when Clark Candiotti threw seven innings of 1-run ball in the semifinals and Cam Walty went eight strong in the final.
A week later, as a regional host, Candiotti and Walty were tagged for 11 runs in 10 innings and the Wildcats went 0-2. Even the 1974 team can attest to how quickly things can go south, as that squad was 58-4 entering the NCAA tourney only to lose consecutive games at Northern Colorado.
The 1974 team finished with a team ERA of 2.07, best in school history, but allowed six runs in each regional game. That had only happened six times during the regular season.
Arizona Diamondbacks prospect Druw Jones needed a home run to complete the cycle when he dug into the batter’s box in the eighth inning of a Double-A game on Wednesday night.
Jones, playing for Double-A Amarillo, stayed behind the baseball and drove an inside pitch to right-center field for his first home run of the season, earning the first cycle in Sod Poodles history.
🚨 DRUW JONES CYCLE 🚨
The @Dbacks prospect becomes the first @sodpoodles player to notch the milestone! pic.twitter.com/5U9ubTtIga
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) April 30, 2026
The 22-year-old knocked out the toughest leg first with a triple to right field in the third inning against the Midland Rockhounds (Athletics). Jones zoomed from home to third base in 11 seconds, Corbin Carroll-esque speed, for his first triple of the season.
Jones singled in the fifth on a ground ball that skipped under shortstop Joshua Kuroda-Grauer’s glove on what would have been a tight play at first base, and in the sixth, he doubled to right field.
His home run came off right-handed pitcher Mitch Myers to give Amarillo a 9-2 lead in a 10-2 win — infield prospect Cristofer Torin went back-to-back with Jones.
The last Diamondbacks major leaguer to hit for the cycle was Aaron Hill, who did so twice within 11 days of each other in 2012. The most recent cycle in Major League Baseball came from Minnesota’s Byron Buxton on July 12.
Jones is the No. 16 prospect in Arizona’s system as ranked by MLB Pipeline and No. 17 by Baseball America.
Known for his defense, the outfielder has gotten off to a slow start statistically with a .229/.345/.343 slash line in his first 19 games playing Double-A baseball. He hit .286 in Cactus League this past spring and performed well in the World Baseball Classic for Team Netherlands.
PHOENIX — Chandler residents may be one step closer to ending about $1.7 million a year in property taxes paid to the Roosevelt Water Conservation District after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the city’s water agreement.
The court ruled that Chandler’s water agreement with the Roosevelt Water Conservation District remains enforceable through 2086, ending a yearslong dispute over water deliveries and taxes paid by thousands of property owners.
“Nearly 27,000 Chandler households have paid Roosevelt Water Conservation District property taxes for years without water benefits. That ends with this ruling,” Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke said in a Wednesday announcement.
Why were Chandler and RWCD in court over a water agreement?
City officials said the dispute began when the district, known as RWCD, stopped honoring its agreement to provide water to Chandler. The most recent version of that deal was signed in 2002.
Last year, Hartke told KTAR News 92.3 FM that RWCD would sometimes let water go to waste rather than sell it to the city.
RWCD was formed more than a century ago to irrigate about 40,000 acres of farmland in Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa and southeastern Maricopa County. As those lands urbanized, Chandler continued purchasing water through the district’s water rights.
The court rejected RWCD’s argument that Chandler waited too long to sue.
“Water is a critical public resource, and this ruling restores a key component of Chandler’s 100-year assured water supply,” Hartke said.
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Two months since the war in Iran began, the conflict shows no clear ending in sight.
President Donald Trump posted on social media that Iran is in a “state of collapse” but offered no additional context for what that means. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
The ripple effects of the war are felt around the world, with changes in gas and fuel prices impacting consumers.
Gas prices climb
In the days before the war began, the average price for a gallon of gas in Arizona was $3.59. On Tuesday, April 28, the average is $4.63. That price is even higher in Maricopa County, sitting at $4.76.
“My husband has a diesel truck, and that’s just outrageous right now. I put premium in my car, so it’s very expensive, too,” said Kathie Nunn, who lives in Phoenix.
Airline costs soar
It’s not just drivers feeling the pinch. Flyers are too.
“I would say roughly 15 or 20 percent more is what I’ve noticed that I have to pay more,” one traveler said.
The week before the war started, the price of jet fuel was $2.50 a gallon. On Tuesday, April 28, the price is $4.26, according to Airlines for America.
“I fly Southwest mostly. I was able to get a straight flight home and two from here. It was higher than normal, for sure,” said Patrick Foy, who was flying from Phoenix to Louisiana.
Major airliners have already raised checked baggage fees because of the rising fuel prices, while some of the smaller, budget airlines are asking the federal government for billions of dollars in assistance.
“It’s obviously frustrating. It affects our family’s budget,” Foy said.
Gas experts have said even when the war in Iran ends, the full relief people see at the pump or when buying a plane ticket will most likely not be immediate.
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