Now up to full speed, UA outfielder Emilio Corona is mashing again

Emilio Corona is fitting right in with the UA’s Pac-12-leading offense.

After starting his collegiate career at Washington, the junior outfielder followed that up with one season at Pima Community College after some of his UW teammates who had played at Pima suggested it to him.

It was during the fall of last year when UA first started to reach out to Corona about playing for the Wildcats.

“Just the coaching staff, and this is a historic program,” Corona said about what stood out to him about UA. “I think anybody who plays baseball growing up kind of looks up to (Arizona), and it’s kind of like, ‘Wow, this is the pinnacle of college athletics.’”

Corona is hitting .345 in 84 at-bats, with six homers and 30 RBis heading into the Wildcats’ nonconference series against Air Force (22-24). The first game is at 6 p.m. Friday at Hi Corbett Field.

Corona was expected to enter this season as the everyday right fielder for Arizona, but his hamstring injury, as well as the emergence of Tyler Casagrande and Brendan Summerhill, led to a position platoon to start the season.

“(Corona) kind of got pushed back a little bit, and then getting the opportunities he got, he ran with it,” UA coach Chip Hale said.

The Wildcats got swept in Corvallis last weekend by Oregon State in a series where they had the lead in the ninth inning in two different games. One of those games was Sunday, when Corona smashed three home runs, including a three-run shot to left field that put UA ahead 10-8 in the final inning. The Beavers rallied with three runs to win 11-10 despite Corona’s eight RBIs.

“It was incredible Sunday because they have good pitching at Oregon State,” Hale said. “We knew that and he basically carried the day and gave us a chance to get that last game which was so important at the time.”

It was the relationship between the UA coaching staff and the Pima coaching staff that was part of what led the 6-foot Corona to be recruited by Arizona.

“They tip us off on guys and obviously he was a Pac-12 player recruited by Washington,” Hale said. “We watched him in the fall. We saw him a bunch and you don’t come around power like he has.”

Corona hit .346 in 55 games with Pima, belting 13 homers and driving in 60 runs.

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Hale noted that if Corona remains on the team next season, one aspect we could see take a step forward in his game is his speed.

“He really runs well, so I think there’s parts of his game we could really improve,” Hale said.

‘This is a good team’

After dropping all three games last weekend, Arizona sits in eighth place in the conference standings. The Wildcats (23-19, 9-15 Pac-12) also lost 4-3 in 11 innings at Grand Canyon.

Air Force has reeled off five straight wins, so it is coming to Tucson with some momentum on its side.

“This is a good team we’re playing,” Hale said. “Their record doesn’t show it, but they’ve been playing better of late and they’re very athletic so we’re going to have to play good baseball.”

The Falcons went 1-1 against UA at Hi Corbett early in the 2021 season, winning 5-2 and losing 14-5.

UA has 11 games left in the regular season, including a Pac-12 series on the road against Stanford and at home against USC.

Inside pitch

Arizona’s Kiko Romero remains the Pac-12 leader in RBIs (58).

As a team, Arizona leads the Pac-12 in batting average (.315), slugging (.535), doubles (111), hits (486) and runs (352).

Casey Hintz, Eric Orloff, Dawson Netz, TJ Nichols and Trevor Long combined to allow one run across 8⅓ innings in relief in UA’s extra-inning loss to GCU.