Shortly after Arizona’s men’s basketball team was eliminated by Clemson in the Sweet 16 in Los Angeles on March 28, the Wildcat baseball team kicked off a weekend series at Hi Corbett Field against UCLA. Three games below .500 and losers of their last two Pac-12 series, the season was teetering on the brink of being lost.
About three hours later, Brendan Summerhill hit a walkoff 2-run homer to beat the Bruins in 10 innings, completing a comeback from down 3-0 and starting a run that is still going almost a month later.
That win was the second of what’s now 10 consecutive Pac-12 victories for Arizona, the longest streak in school history. It’s also part of 15 wins in 16 overall, elevating the UA from a team with almost no chance to make the NCAA Tournament to one that’s in the conversation to host a regional.
Upcoming Arizona baseball schedule
(Pac-12 Tournament, Scottsdale Stadium)
- Pool play: Wednesday vs. Washington (7 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Network)
- Pool play: Thursday vs. Cal (7 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Network)
- Semifinals: Friday, 2:30/7 p.m. PT (Pac-12 Network)
- Championship: Saturday, 7 p.m. PT (ESPNU)
“I just think we’re never out of the fight,” junior second baseman Garen Caulfield said earlier this week. “I just think it’s the preparation and the confidence that we carry with us every day. Everybody’s focused right now. And really it started back in the fall. We knew we had a good group of guys, we were telling you in the preseason, and a lot of people didn’t really know about us, and we kind of used that as a motivation for this year and we’re just taking it day by day.”
Picked to finish ninth in the preseason, 16th-ranked Arizona (25-14, 13-5 Pac-12) takes a 2-game cushion on first place to Seattle for a 3-game series at Washington (14-19-1, 6-12). The Wildcats are 9-8 in true road games this season, including four in a row in Pac-12 play, after going 4-14 on the road last season.
D1Baseball.com has the UA as the No. 16 overall seed in its latest NCAA tourney projection, meaning it would host a regional at Hi Corbett. The Wildcats hosted in 2012 and 2021, making the College World Series both times.
The national ranking and NCAA projection weren’t around when Arizona went to Cal three weeks ago and swept a Golden Bears team that has since won nine of 10. Washington is battling just to get a spot in the final Pac-12 Tournament next month, and no doubt will give the Wildcats their best shot.
“We’re not sneaking up on anybody,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “There will be a little extra pressure on us.”
Arizona’s extended run has included six walkoff wins at Hi Corbett, including two of three last weekend against Washington State. But both of those games required the last at-bat drama after the bullpen gave up a multi-run lead, and in four other wins the Wildcats have lost a lead in the seventh or later.
Signs of concern for the bullpen? Not according to one of its most veteran members.
“I think some people from the outside see it as a negative thing, like we can’t finish games,” senior right-hander Dawson Netz said. “But when you realize that different teams play in different ways, like Washington State was a team that was going to sell out just to put the ball in play. So it’s going to be harder to strike more hitters out that way. So when you understand that like they’re just trying to put the ball in play. We’re not going to strike a bunch of guys out but we’re trying to get hitters out.”
Arizona’s bullpen has a collective 3.88 ERA, which ranks 14th in the country, fitting in with a team ERA of 3.75 that is 6th nationally. Netz is one of eight relievers that have rotated through a variety of roles in the pen, with his 13 appearances ranging from the second inning to extras, going 2-0 with a 3.95 ERA.
“Every inning is the ninth and you’ve gotta get everybody out,” said Netz, whose 87 career appearances are tied for fourth-most in school history.
One of two holdovers from the 2021 CWS team, along with senior righty reliever Trevor Long, Netz said he’s made sure to remind the many younger players on the team that it’s a privilege to play at Arizona. He’s one of five captains, and fellow veterans Caulfield and senior outfielder Emilio Corona have been at the forefront of keeping the team focused and motivated throughout the season.
“I would say that Garen, Emilio and Dawson as the captains did an unbelievable job of just keeping every as positive as we could, and being honest,” Hale said. “There was a lot of honesty that was shared, especially Garen did a good job of that of just sort of setting guys straight. We want to be positive, but honesty is important too.”
On Wednesday night, Arizona run-ruled New Mexico State 12-2 in Las Cruces to avenge one of its worst losses of the season, a 12-9 setback at Hi Corbett on March 26. That NMSU loss included a lengthy delay in the middle, due to lightning, during which Caulfield said Hale was “getting honest” with the team in the clubhouse.
“We went in there Chip had a good message for us and it kind of turned things around,” Caulfield said. “He said, just turn the scoreboard off and let’s fight to the end, and if we lose by nine, then we lose by nine. And if we come back and win we come back and win. He refocused us and we put together some really good at-bats to end that game.”
Down 9-1 at resumption, Arizona would outscore the Aggies 8-3 down the stretch. Include that in the 15 of 16 stretch and the Wildcats are outscoring opponents 111-52.
Morales remains out, Mihalakis filling void
Junior third baseman Richie Morales did not make the trip with Arizona to Las Cruces and Seattle, still recovering from taking a ground ball to the face April 16 at GCU. Thankfully, his absence hasn’t been felt much.
Sophom*ore Maddox Mihalakis has started the last four games at third, going without an error and starting a double play at NMSU. Meanwhile, at the plate he’s 8 for 18 with eight RBI including the walkoff RBI single against WSU on April 19 and a 3-run home run on Wednesday.
Milestone on horizon for Hale
If Arizona pulls off another sweep it would get Hale to 100 wins at Arizona. He sits at 97-65 in two-plus seasons coaching his alma mater.
The coach to reach 100 wins quickest is Jerry Kindall, the school’s all-time wins leader. He needed 124 games, while Frank Sancet did it in 145 and Jay Johnson (155).
Assuming Arizona gets into the NCAA tourney, though, Hale will do something almost none of his predecessors did: reach the postseason in his first three seasons on the job. Only Sancet, who made it every year from 1950-63, qualified more than two years in a row to start their UA coaching career.
