Smith Bailey’s masterful performance wasted in ugly home loss to Kansas State

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You never know what you’re going to see when you go to a ballgame, both good and bad. Sometimes both in the same night.

One of the greatest individual pitching performances in program history ended up being for naught in Arizona’s 11-1, 8-inning loss to Kansas State on Saturday night at Hi Corbett Field.

Smith Bailey struck out 15, one shy of the school record in a conference game since joining the Pac-10 in 1979, and allowed only one hit over six innings. The sophomore right-hander left with a 1-0 lead only to see the UA bullpen, which had been collectively stellar the last two weeks, implode all at once.

“You’re up 1-0 with a guy that struck out 15 guys, things are rolling, and all of a sudden it just kind of slaps you in the face,” coach Chip Hale said. “And that’s what we talk about, this game on a daily basis will rip your guts out. We have a young team, and it’s just not going to be easy. We have to play better. It’s no fun getting run ruled at home.”

Arizona (14-24, 5-12 Big 12) got its lone run on a solo home run in the 5th by Carson McEntire, his 7th of the season, but finished with only four hits. The Wildcats had only three at-bats with a runner in scoring position against Kansas State lefty Lincoln Sheffield, who struck out 10 and threw a complete game.

“Their guy tonight did a wonderful job, he didn’t walk anybody,” Hale said. “He changed speeds, kept the ball down, we swung at a lot of bad pitched in the dirt, but he did a great job.”

Bailey’s first nine outs were all via strikeout, including seven in a row after allowing two baserunners with two outs in the top of the 1st. He got ahead on 15 of 21 batters, including 0-2 seven times, and only fell behind 2-0 twice, finishing with 22 swings and misses.

“We had a talk with our pitching coach and our catcher, and it was just to have fun,” Bailey said. “Go back to kind of pitching. We went back to some old school (hand) signs and stuff like that. So just kind of going back to what I had just been doing my whole life.”

Bailey said he also benefitted from charting , who allowed a run over 7-plus innings on Friday.