Young pitchers struggle as Arizona baseball loses at New Mexico

With a few exceptions, Arizona’s pitching has been pretty good this season. Wednesday night was one of those exceptions.

The Wildcats had their 6-game losing streak snapped in a 12-7 win at New Mexico, a game they led 6-2 in the third inning but couldn’t hold onto as the young pitchers they used couldn’t get the job done.

New Mexico (9-12) scored in every inning from the first to the seventh, getting sixth in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead for good. The Lobos finished with 18 hits, scoring at least one run against five of six UA pitchers.

Sophomore right-hander Chandler Murphy started, his second appearance since coming back from a forearm injury, but he needed 36 pitches to get through the first in which he allowed an unearned run along with a hit and two walks. Freshman Anthony Susac followed, giving up six runs in 2.1 innings to pick up the loss, then fellow freshmen Josh Randall, Eric Orloff and Javyn Pimental yielded two, two and one runs, respectively.

Arizona (16-5) had 14 hits, with No. 9 hitter Garen Caulfield getting three including an RBI double that tied the game at 1 in the second. Nik McClaughry’s 2-run triple put the Wildcats up 3-1 that inning, then Noah Turley hit a 3-run home run in the third for a 6-2 lead.

The UA returns home Friday to host UCLA in a 3-game series at Hi Corbett Field.