If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. This is a common viewpoint in baseball, as each at-bat, pitch and game can be a fresh start.
It’s also how Arizona is approaching this weekend in Houston, where it will be facing a trio of ranked SEC teams in the Astros Foundation College Classic.
The Wildcats (5-3) open the tournament Friday night at Daikin Park—formerly Minute Maid Park—against No. 1 Texas A&M, which played for the College World Series title last June, followed by No. 18 Mississippi State and No. 3 Tennessee, the defending CWS champions.
“Growing up as a kid, you always dream of playing in a big league ballpark and being a big leaguer,” senior Tommy Splaine said. “Being able to play these teams as well and being able to see what you got so early in the season, it’s kind of like a once in a lifetime experience.”
This is Arizona’s second early-season tourney, having opened the 2025 campaign at the Shriners Children’s College Showdown in Arlington, Texas. That trip didn’t go so well, with the Wildcats losing all three games albeit to teams that are a combined 20-3.
“I think we played better than 0-3,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “It doesn’t matter, because wins are what matter in college baseball, we need to beat some of these teams and prove that we’re at that level. So I think our guys are keyed up and ready to go.”
The UA has won five in a row since that rough start, most recently beating Rice 11-8 on Wednesday night. That game saw the Wildcats rally from down 7-5 with a 5-run 7th inning.
“There was never any panic,” Hale said. “The guys just kept knowing that we were gonna keep scoring.”
Arizona has averaged 9.8 runs per game during its win streak but will be facing much tougher pitching this weekend. A&M is likely to throw left-hander Ryan Prager, who has not allowed a run in 10 innings over two starts, while Mississippi State’s team ERA is 2.42 and Tennessee’s is 1.89.
The Wildcats are going with the same starting rotation as the first two weekends. Righty Collin McKinney will start Friday, righty Owen Kramkowski is going Saturday and righty Smith Bailey. McKinney only went three innings in his last start, while Kramkowski and Bailey each went five last weekend.
The Astros Foundation College Classic features 12 players listed on MLB.com’s Top 100 draft prospects for 2025, topped by A&M outfielder Jace Laviolette at No. 2 and six from Tennessee. Arizona’s Brendan Summerhill (No. 10) and Mason White (No. 82) are on there as well.
Yet the most impressive hitters for the UA so far this season have been ones a little lower on the draft boards: outfielder Aaron Walton, catcher Adonys Guzman and third baseman Mathis Meurant.
Walton, a transfer from Samford, was on base five times at Rice and for the season is hitting .417 and thanks to six walks and six hit by pitches has a .611 on-base percentage.
“We knew, obviously the athlete he was, the tough guy he was,” Hale said. “The interesting thing is, there’s a lot more in there. This is a guy who’s got a lot of talent, whether it’s leadership stuff, he’s a quiet guy, and I think as the season goes on, he’ll become more of a leader.”
Guzman had a home run and five RBI against Rice and is hitting .389 with eight RBI after driving in just 17 last season. He has struck out just three times in 22 plate appearances.
“He has a really good two-strike approach, so when he gets two strikes, I know if he uses the approach that he has shown us he can be really dangerous with two strikes and hit the ball,” Hale said. “He has a really good knack of kind of slowing down and spreading out a little bit and putting the ball in play hard. I’m not surprised by it. He’s shown us he could do that. It’s part of the reason why he was a really coveted prospect out of high school.”
And Meurant, a JUCO transfer from France (by way of Cochise College in Douglas), is hitting .462 with a 1.563 OPS while splitting time at third with Maddox Mihalakis and Richie Morales.
Guzman has started six of eight games behind the plate, with Splaine catching both Sunday games in addition to starting four times at first base. The senior was part of a catching platoon in 2023 but was exclusively at 1B last year.
“I’d say I’ve learned a lot more, just kind of each year has gone on the game slowed down a little bit,” Splaine said. “I always enjoyed playing catcher, and that was one of my favorite things to do growing up. I’m definitely enjoying being back there.”
Splaine has already thrown out two potential base stealers this season; in 2023 he was 0 for 40.
“With runners on base now, most of the time I’m right knee down with the left knee up, which makes it much easier to throw to second, which I had difficulty doing my sophomore year when I was catching on a more consistent basis,” he said.
Daikin Park, home of the Houston Astros, features some unique outfield dimensions. It’s only 315 feet down the left field line, where the Crawford Boxes are situated above a 19-foot wall, and 320 in right, but then it goes to 366 in left-center and 370 in right-center with the deepest part of the field at 409 feet.
Hi Corbett Field, by comparison is 366 feet to left and 349 to right with the deepest part (left-center) at 410 feet.
Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Tennessee each play in relatively small home parks, each going only 320 or 330 feet down the lines, and combined they’ve hit 43 home runs in 23 games.
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