With the series split at one win apiece going into Sunday's series finale, No. 11 Arizona (9-3) failed to capitalize on the strong series performance from Daniel Susac and Tanner O'Tremba, falling to Texas State 7-3 to close out the weekend at Hi Corbett Field.

The series loss marks the first time that Arizona has lost a home series since the 2019 season.

"Obviously, you're gonna be frustrated. I think we take pride in winning at home, but on the other hand, we've been really hot and we've been hitting it well, O'Tremba said about losing a home series.

"We've been scoring runs and pitching great. That's just going to happen. Baseball is a game where you can win a bunch of games, but then all of a sudden lose a couple."

Offensively, O'Tremba made noise this weekend, going 3-for-7 with five RBIs in the first two games and going 2-for-4 with an RBI in Sunday's loss. He now has driven in a team-high 18 runs in 12 games to start the season.

"Just preaching selflessness," O'Tremba said regarding him and Susac getting back-to-back RBIs. "If that means hitting a sac fly, hitting the ball on the ground, getting out, a dropped third strike, it doesn't matter what you do in that situation. The idea is to put the team first and get the ball in play."

The Wildcats faced a crucial game three that would have seen them take their second straight series to start the season. The weekend series was the first-ever meeting between Arizona and Texas State.

After a strong outing by Arizona pitcher TJ Nichols on Friday night, where he went 6 2/3 dominant innings, Nichols was followed by pitcher Garrett Irvin, who struggled to keep Texas State from crossing home plate as he gave up four runs and three earned over 5 2/3 innings of work while only striking out two batters in Saturday's loss to the Bobcats.

For the final deciding game of the series, Dawson Netz got the nod where he struggled to find command of his pitches and allowed three runs on six hits and four walks while only striking out two batters over four innings of work.

Netz was relieved by Quinn Flanagan, who also struggled in two innings of work and consequently took the loss. Despite his struggles, the plan was not for him to have to go in Sunday, but since Netz came out early, the entry of Flanagan was needed.

"Well no I mean if we could have gotten six innings out of Netz we would have gone more to our bullpen guys," head coach Chip Hale said. "But we just felt that at that point we were gonna let Quinn run it out. But I mean again, they hit both those guys really well."

Susac had himself a series offensively where he went 4 for 9 with four runs scored and three doubles in the first two games. However, he struggled in the final game of the series going, hitless in four at-bats with an RBI.

Susac broke the Arizona freshman double record in 2021 by hitting 24 doubles; he already has nine doubles in 54 at-bats this season.

After struggling during the series and not picking up a base hit in seven at-bats, Arizona outfielder Chase Davis was given the day off from the starting lineup in what was a first for him on the season. Davis so far has started every game that the Wildcats have played. He had a pinch-hit appearance and couldn't come up with a hit during Sunday's game.

"Manager's decision to change up the lineup a little bit. "That's all," Hale said when asked about Davis' absence from the lineup.

As a team, Arizona currently is top-three in their conference in hits, doubles and triples, where they are ranked No. 1 and are ranked No. 3 in runs, RBIs, batting average and slugging percentage.

The Wildcats also have the longest active scoring streak in the Power 5, having scored a run in 181 consecutive games.

On Tuesday night, the Wildcats will play a home game against New Mexico before they begin Pac-12 play in a three-game road series against California (6-5) on March 11 with a first-pitch time of 6:05 p.m. (MST).

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