Arizona baseball had won five of its last seven games, which included three road wins, entering Friday evening’s matchup with Kansas State.
Arizona
Ruben Gallego leads Kari Lake for Arizona US Senate seat
PHOENIX — U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego’s lead over Kari Lake in the race for Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat continued to decrease as of Thursday night.
Drops from multiple counties, including about 70,000 votes from Maricopa County, cut Gallego’s advantage to 49.8%-48.1% — a difference of 1.7 percentage points (43,698 votes), with about 2.6 million votes tallied as of Thursday evening, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office results page.
As of Thursday morning, Gallego’s advantage was 52,578 votes as tallies from Republican-heavy rural counties were unveiled.
Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana was pulling about 2%.
Gallego’s lead fluctuated for most of Wednesday as those rural counties that reported results earlier in the day favored Lake. Maricopa County, the state’s largest county by far, released the results of about 175,000 votes slightly favoring the Democrat in two evening drops.
Gallego was leading Lake by 5.4 points in the initial results posted after the polls closed Tuesday night.
The winner will replace Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who did not seek reelection.
Regardless of who wins the Arizona race, Republicans will win control of the Senate, giving a boost to Donald Trump’s agenda as he returns to the White House.
Who are Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake?
Gallego is the representative for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, which covers most of south, west and downtown Phoenix. The Marine veteran has served five terms in the U.S. House.
Gallego entered the race in January 2023 and ran unopposed in the July primary election.
Lake, the Republican candidate, is one of Arizona’s most well known political figures and popular in GOP circles.
Lake, recognizable in the Phoenix market from her years on TV before getting into politics, built an enthusiastic following among Republicans with her unflinching support for Donald Trump and her steadfast promotion of false claims of election fraud.
She lost the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs in her first run for office. Lake has since unsuccessfully fought the results of the 2022 election in court.
Lake entered the race in October 2023 and defeated Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the primary.
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.”
-
New Hampshire3 minutes ago‘Not cosmetic’: NH lawmaker wants state to cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss – Concord Monitor
-
New Jersey9 minutes agoThe Maple House Is Planning To Open In Two Locations In New Jersey This Year
-
New Mexico15 minutes agoASU baseball to host New Mexico State, Baylor
-
North Carolina21 minutes agoThree Underrated UNC Football Seniors To Watch in 2026
-
North Dakota27 minutes agoFinley, North Dakota without water after watermain leak.
-
Ohio33 minutes agoBonnie Sue Reed-Tilton-Hetzel, East Liverpool, Ohio
-
Oklahoma39 minutes agoIowa State wrestling adds Brayden Thompson from transfer portal
-
Oregon45 minutes agoOregon Ducks Recruiting Target Darius Johnson Announces Finalists