Arizona baseball freshman Danzeisen, raised on a dairy farm, knows how to milk an at-bat

In the meantime, he’s milking at-bats for the Arizona Wildcats.

The freshman right fielder has been a bright spot for the struggling UA baseball team. Danzeisen is tied for the team lead with 14 walks drawn and has a team-best .448 on-base percentage.

Last Friday at Utah, Danzeisen hit his first career home run — a three-run shot in the top of the ninth inning that tied the score at 6-6. Arizona won 8-6 in 11 innings.

“He's an elite hitter, at his age especially,” said UA coach Chip Hale, whose team hosts Texas Tech Friday-Sunday at Hi Corbett Field. “Those are the kind of at-bats that we want and we want from everybody.”

While the injury-riddled Wildcats dropped another midweek game Tuesday, falling 6-3 to New Mexico, Danzeisen had another productive night at the plate. He went 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. The only out he recorded came on a well-struck ball deep into the left-center-field gap.

Danzeisen said he’s had a discerning eye in the box since he was a youth.

“It was just natural,” said Danzeisen, whose 28.2% line-drive rate is the best on the team among regulars, per D1Baseball. “Just me and my dad in the cage. He'd be 20 feet away and throwing it as hard as he can. I would just see it, hit it.”

Time spent in the batting cage sometimes came at the end of days that began at 4 a.m. Caleb’s father, Kevin, is the general manager of Danzeisen Dairy, which has been operating out of the Phoenix area for more than 60 years.

Caleb lived on a farm until junior high. Every day began with an early wakeup call to milk cows.

Danzeisen conceded that he “wasn’t the biggest fan of it” at the time. But that experience taught him the value of hard work.

“There's no days off,” Danzeisen said. “To treat a cow, you can't take a day off without milking them. They get milked three times a day.

“That's what I take for baseball. If you don't work hard, you won't get the credit.”

Even with his background on the dairy farm, Danzeisen has found the daily grind of college baseball to be a challenge. The players get one mandatory day off per week. But it’s nothing like high school for a player like Danzeisen, who played at the 3A level at Valley Christian in Chandler.

You wouldn’t know it from Danzeisen’s approach at the plate. A left-handed hitter, Danzeisen is adept at working deep into counts and hitting the ball to all fields. His game-tying home run at Utah came on a 3-2 pitch at the end of a seven-pitch at-bat.

“That was the coolest moment,” Danzeisen said. “I’ve never felt that way before. I love baseball for that reason. I can’t even put it into words.”

Beleaguered bullpen

The hits keeping coming — in a bad way — for the Wildcats’ bullpen.

Already missing right-handers Tony Pluta and Nolan Straniero and left-hander Mason Russell, Arizona recently learned that righty JT Drake would be unable to come back from an arm injury.

Hale said Tuesday that Drake is getting a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injection and will miss the remainder of the season. Drake transferred to Arizona last summer after spending his first two seasons at Pima Community College and last year at Texas Tech. He never appeared in a game this season for the Wildcats.

Russell is the only one of the four injured pitchers who could return this season, and that’s no sure thing. The lack of arms has put a strain on Arizona’s healthy pitchers to the point that Hale has considered canceling some of the Wildcats’ midweek games.

“We’ve had to really be careful,” Hale said. “We don't have enough arms, especially if (midweek starter Collin) McKinney doesn't give us four or five innings.

“It’s tough. ... It's definitely a domino effect. And not only the usage but their stuff. It's impossible to pitch that much and (have) your stuff stay good.

“These Tuesday games are murdering our arms right now.”

Arizona used four pitchers against New Mexico, and all threw multiple innings and 30-plus pitches: McKinney (2⅓, 65), Corey Kling (1⅔, 32), Patrick Morris (two, 34) and Benton Hickman (three, 32).

Hickman, a true freshman, had the best outing of his career. He didn’t allow a baserunner in three frames while striking out four Lobos.

“We have a lot of trust in him,” Hale said. “If he just gets ahead and throws strikes, he's tough to hit. He's got really good metrics on his stuff.”

Hale’s warning

For the second time after as many midweek home games, Hale delivered a stern address to the position players following the loss to New Mexico.

The Wildcats committed two errors, yielded a run on a passed ball and didn’t score after plating three runs in the second inning.

Hale has never been a fear-based motivator, but it’s gotten to the point where players will lose playing time if they don’t perform.

“At some point guys have to understand that if you're not producing and you're not playing the game the way we expect here at Arizona, then someone else will get an opportunity,” Hale said.

Lopez honored

Former UA coach Andy Lopez, who led the Wildcats to the 2012 College World Series title, was added to the Legends Plaza Wall of Fame at Hi Corbett Field on Tuesday.

“I've known him since I was in high school,” Hale said. “When I was playing in the '80s, he was the head coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and they would always give us a run for our money.

“He's a heck of a coach and really proud that he was able to be the head coach here and win a national championship and produce a lot of big-league players. He's a great guy, and he still gives me a lot of advice.”

Lopez’s son Michael, who played at Arizona from 2009-12, is the Lobos’ associate head coach.

Inside pitch

– UA freshman shortstop Cash Brennan suffered a high-ankle sprain at Utah and is out indefinitely. Brennan has been platooning with senior Mathis Meurant, who’s hitting just .095. Redshirt freshman Jackson Forbes could get a look at shortstop this weekend.

– Texas Tech (13-7, 2-1) leads the Big 12 in runs scored (226), doubles (59), batting average (.367), on-base percentage (.475) and slugging percentage (.620). The Red Raiders are last in the league in ERA (7.29).

– Two UA pitchers rank in the top 10 in the Big 12 in ERA: Smith Bailey (2.76, seventh) and Luc Fladda (3.00, 10th).

– Texas Tech has played 15 of its 20 games at home. Arizona (7-13, 1-2) has played 10 of its 20 games at home.