Arizona’s cursed season has added one more injury-caused expletive.
Coach Chip Hale announced Tuesday night that sophomore pitcher Smith Bailey is done for the remainder of the season The right-hander is dealing with “soft tissue stuff” in his throwing shoulder that caused him to leave his last start Saturday at Kansas after two innings, making him the 10th player lost to an injury before or during the 2026 season.
“Everything’s checked out so far, all the images they’ve done looked good,” Hale said after Arizona’s 8-6 win over New Mexico State at Hi Corbett Field, which snapped a 6-game losing streak. “There’s no damage in any of the joints or any of the all the muscles. So it’s just a matter of rehabbing it. But the problem is, once you shut a guy down to get him back going again … now you’re talking about every day is probably two days to get to get back, so it’s going to be at least a week before he picked up a ball.”
Arizona (17-30, 7-17 Big 12) has six games remaining in the regular season, and if it finishes in the top 12 in the Big 12 Conference—it’s currently tied for that last spot—it would play in the conference tournament May 19-23 in Surprise. Bailey likely wouldn’t have been able to return until June at the earliest, and the only way the Wildcats would be playing then is if they won the Big 12 tourney to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Bailey went 3-4 with a 4.67 ERA in 12 starts this season, striking out 65 batters in 61.2 innings including a career-high 15 against Kansas State on April 18. That earned him conference and NCBWA Pitcher of the Week honors, but in his next start Bailey allowed five runs in 4.1 innings and then gave up one run over two at Kansas before coming out.
At the time Hale said Bailey “wasn’t feeling great,” language he had used previously when freshman righty Jack Lafflam exited a start on March 31 after two innings and missed four weeks of action. Lafflam started Tuesday and threw four scoreless frames, the longest outing of his career, and had a career-best five strikeouts.
Bailey is the fifth pitcher the UA has lost for the season this spring, a list that began for games started when senior closer Tony Pluta underwent elbow surgery. Relievers JT Drake, Mason Russell and Nolan Straneiro are also shut down.
On the position side the Wildcats have had three players suffer season-ending shoulder injuries including left fielder Easton Breyfogle and second baseman Tyler Bickers, while two junior college transfer outfielders (Sean Barta and Chaz McNellis) have yet to play after getting hurt in the preseason.
Another pitcher, Benton Hickman, had to leave his outing Tuesday after two batters with what Hale described as pain in his bicep. The freshman righty could be seen shaking his arm out after a few pitches before getting pulled.
With Bailey done, Hale said the likely plan for this weekend is to keep righty Owen Kramkowski on Friday but move lefty Luc Fladda up to Saturday. The Sunday slot would likely go to righty Collin McKinney, who began the season in that role but has since become a bulk reliever that has a 1.93 ERA in Big 12 games and picked up his first career save against NMSU.
Recapping Tuesday’s win
Arizona began its final homestand of the regular season by jumping out to an 8-1 lead against NMSU and then holding on for dear life. The Aggies scored five times in the top of the 9th before McKinney closed it out with a strikeout and foul pop fly.
Catcher Beau Sylvester had the UA’s first multi-home run game of the season, hitting a 2-run blast in the 3rd inning and a solo shot in the 7th. Cash Brennan had a pair of RBI singles and Nate Novitske was 3 for 5.