TUCSON, Ariz. - The University of Arizona baseball team and Houston will play a three-game series at Hi Corbett Field this weekend, marking the final home series of the 2026 season for the Wildcats.

Friday and Saturday night's contests are scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. (MST), while the series final on Sunday will begin at 11:00 a.m. (MST). All three games will be available for viewing on ESPN+.

LEADING OFF:

• The Arizona Wildcats and the Houston Cougars are set to meet for a three-game Big 12 series at Hi Corbett Field.

• Arizona and New Mexico State have met 13 times previously with the Wildcats leading the series 7-6.  

• Arizona won two of three games at Houston last season in the first meeting between the two programs as Big 12 opponents.

• Beau Sylvester's 15-game hitting streak came to an end last Saturday, however, he went 2-3 on Sunday and then went 2-for-5 with two home runs on Wednesday night and his batting average has ascended to .338 which ranks second on the team.

• Cash Brennan is a combined  5-11 with a home run and four RBI over Arizona's past three games. 

• Tony Lira continues to pace the Arizona offense, as he leads the team in batting average (.348), hits (66), doubles (15), slugging percentage (.513), and on-base percentage (.429).

• Over the past 15 games, senior Mathis Meurant is batting .308 with a home run, three doubles, five RBI, and six runs scored, and he has recorded a hit in five of the past six games.

• Owen Kramkowski has pitched 5.0 innings or more in each of his past nine starts.

• True freshman Caleb Danzeisen leads the team with 34 walks this season, while ranking second in on-base percentage (.407), and he has reached base in 33 of 37 games started this season.

SOME WEEKEND THEMES: The Arizona Wildcats and Houston Cougars are set to meet for a three-game confernece series, marking the final series of the 2026 season at Hi Corbett Field...Arizona and Houston have met 13 times previously, with the Wildcats holding a 7-6 advantage in the series, including winning two of three games at Houston last season...Arizona enters the weekend tied for 12th in the Big 12 standings, as they continue to pursue a spot in the Big 12 Tournament...The Wildcats are coming off a strong performance in which they defeated New Mexico State 8-6 behind a superb performance from Beau Sylvester...Sylvester went 2-for-5 with two home runs, marking the first multi-home run game of his career, and he has recorded at least one hit in 17 of the past 18 games he has started...Nate Novitske went 3-for-5 on Wednesday night, tying his second most hits in a game this season and marking his first three-hit performance since March 21 against Texas Tech...Cash Brenann maintained his recent stretch of stellar play on Wednesday night, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored, and he is now 5-11 over Arizona's past three games...Tony Lira  went 1-for-4 with an RBI single on Wedensday night, and he continues to lead the team in batting average (.346), hits (66), OPS (.942), slugging percentage (.513), on-base percentage (.429), doubles (15), and extra-base hits (21), while ranking tied for first in runs (28)...Lira has recorded a hit in 36 of 47 games, including 22 multi-hit performances…True freshman Caleb Danzeisen ranks first on the team in walks (33) and second in on-base percentage (.407), and he has reached base in 33 of 37 games started this season, including reaching base multiple times in 23 games…Arizona ranks first in the Big 12 in FIP (4.64), while rankings second in walk percentage (16.0%), and Luc Fladda ranks first in the conference strikeout to walk ratio (8.67), while Owen Kramkowski ranks second (5.46)...Fladda (4.5%), and Kramkowski (7.6%) also rank first and second in the league in base-on-balls percentage…Arizona is also first in the Big 12 in least amount of home runs allowed (38)...Arizona faces a Houston team that is led by Head Coach Todd Whitting who si in his 16th season at the helm of the program and owns an overall record of 494-391-1…The Cougars are coming off a dominant 10-1 victory over Texas A&M CC on Tuesday night.

FLADDA AND BAILEY GO BACK-TO-BACK: Luc Fladda and Smith Bailey collected Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors in back-to-back weeks, with Fladda earning the award two weeks ago, while Bailey was honored with the award the week prior to Fladda. Fladda had  a superb performance against BYU (4/23) in which he was dominant from start to finish, limiting the Cougars to no runs and just six hits, while fanning 11 batters and issuing zero walks, as he helped lead Arizona to an impressive 6-0 shutout victory over the Cougars. Fladda retired 11 consecutive batters with six strikeouts during a stretch from the third to seventh innings. Bailey had arguably the best performance of his career against Kansas State (4/18). The right-hander tossed 6.0 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, while striking out 15 batters. He became the first Arizona pitcher to record 15 strikeouts in over 15 years and he was just one strikeout shy of matching the program record for most strikeouts in a conference game. Bailey garnered a multitude of recognition for his performance, as he was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, the NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week, and was named to Baseball America's National Team of the Week.

LIRA LEADING THE WAY: Just as he has done all season long, redshirt-freshman Tony Lira continues to lead the way for Arizona offensively. Lira leads the Wildcats in a multitude of offensive categories, including OPS (.942), batting average (.346), hits (66), doubles (15), on-base percentage (.429), slugging percentage (.513), extra-base hits (21), while ranking tied for first in runs (28). Lira has recorded a hit in 30 of the past 36 games, and he has collected at least one hit in 36 of 47 contests this season. He has put together 22 multi-hit performances, and he is batting an exceptional .432 with runners in scoring position this season (16-37). In addition to his stellar play at the plate, Lira has also been a vital piece defensively for Arizona, starting all 46 games at first base for the Wildcats. 

FABULOUS FRESHMEN: Arizona has had five separate freshmen start 23 or more games this season, and they have continued to make a noteworthy impact. Redshirt freshmen Tony Lira and Nate Novitske and true freshmen Caleb Danzeisen have led Arizona offensively all season. Lira has been tremendous, while Novitske ranks third on the team in batting average (.311) and second in hits (59), and he is coming off a three-hit performance against New Mexico State. Danzeisen is second on the squad in on-base percentage (.407), and has reached base in 33 of the 37 games that he has started this season. Redshirt freshman Jackson Forbes has started 26 games and he is sixth on the team in RBI (21). True freshman Cash Brennan is batting (.276) and has played his best baseball of the season as of late. Brennan has started the past three games at third base for Arizona and he is a combined 5-11 with a home run and three RBI.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION: Senior shortstop Mathis Meurant has played his best baseball of the season as of late, and he has recorded a hit in five of Arizona's past six games. Over his last 11 games started, dating back to the series at TCU, Meurant is hitting .308 with 12 hits. He is coming off a 1-for-3 night with a run scored and a walk against New Mexico State on Wednesday. Meurant hails from Vaires-sur-Marne, France, and came to Arizona by way of Cochise College in Douglas, Arizona where he was a 2023 NJCAA First Team All-ACCAC performer. 

SYLVESTER STEPPING UP: Senior Beau Sylvester has continued to elevate his play as the season has gone on, and he is playing arguably the best baseball of his career as of late. Sylvester enters the weekend series recording a hit in 17 of his past 18 games started, and he is coming off a night in which he went 2-for-5 at the plate with two home runs and three RBI against New Mexico State. Sylvester has reached base safely in 30 of 34 games that he has started this season, and he has recorded a hit in 29 of 34 contests for the Wildcats. Sylvester's batting average has ascended to the second best mark on the team (.338), and he is also third in on-base percentage (.396), and tied for third in doubles (10). Over the past 18 games that he has started, he is batting .403 with three home runs, five doubles, a triple, with nine RBI and 13 runs scored. In Big 12 play, Sylvester leads Arizona in hitting, batting an exceptional .373 across 19 games started in conference play.

STARTING ROTATION: Arizona has maintained the same weekend rotation for nearly the entire season after bringing back a large portion of its pitching from the 2025 season, as six of 11 pitchers who threw at least 18 innings last season returned for the 2026 campaign, highlighted by returning starters Owen Kramkowski and Smith Bailey. Kramkowski has been the Friday night starter so far, while Bailey served as the Saturday starter until having to exit last weekend's game due to an injury. Both pitchers were ranked in D1 Baseball's Preseason Top-200 Starting Pitcher rankings. Bailey led the way coming in at #16, while Kramkowski landed at #39. Kramkowski is coming off a breakout sophomore campaign in which he earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors after starting 18 games and posting a record of 9-6 throughout the season. He compiled an ERA of 5.48 across a team-high 92.0 innings of work and recorded 90 strikeouts to just 18 walks. The Sahuarita, Arizona native garnered All-Big 12 Preseason honors and was tabbed a Preseason Third Team All-American by Perfect Game. Kramkowski did not have a great start to the season; however, he had a tremendous performance against Fresno State (3/6) to get back into form, in which he struck out a career-high 12 batters in six innings to help lead Arizona to a shutout victory over Fresno State (3/6). Kramkowski was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week following the superb performance. He had back-to-back outstanding performances against TCU and Kansas State, tossing a combined 14.0 innings and striking out 15.  He had another impressive outing last weekend at Kansas, limiting a potent Jayhawks offense to four hits and three runs across five innings of work with 11 strikeouts. Kramkowski is first on the team and sixth in the Big 12 in strikeouts (71), and he has pitched at least 5.0 innings in each of his last nine starts. He also ranks second in the conference in strikeout to walk ratio (5.46), second in base-on-balls percentage (7.6%), and fourth in walks per nine innings (1.79). Bailey will not be in the rotation this weekend, and senior transfer Luc Fladda will shift up to the Saturday slot after serving as the Sunday starter for the majority of the season for the Wildcats. The Tulane transfer started 30 games across two seasons for the Green Wave the past two years, before joining Arizona ahead of the 2026 campaign for his final collegiate season. Fladda has tossed 58.2 innings this year and has issued just five walks while recording 49 strikeouts, and he leads the Big 12 in strikeout/walk ratio (10.40). Fladda had an outstanding performance two weeks ago against BYU where he tossed 6.2 scoreless innings and struck out a career-high 11 batters, earning Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Week honors for his performance. He has pitched 6.0 innings or more in six of his 11 starts.