Arizona baseball hosts Oregon State with Pac-12 regular-season title — and so much more — at stake (2024)

So much is at stake for Arizona baseball this week. The 14th-ranked Wildcats’ series against No. 6 Oregon State is unquestionably the most consequential three-game set of the season — and one of the most significant in the recent history of both programs.

The Pac-12 regular-season championship will be decided sometime Thursday-Saturday at Hi Corbett Field. The opportunity to host an NCAA regional could be on the line as well.

The challenge Arizona faces, according to Chip Hale and his players, is to minimize all of that. The Wildcats have tried to treat every game with equal importance, and they aren’t planning to change that approach this week.

“Just play good baseball,” Hale said Wednesday. “Start out worried about inning No. 1 on Thursday night with Jackson Kent out there, making the plays and not giving them any extra outs because they’re a really good team. And if we want to go where we want to go, and we think we should go, they’re the type of team we’re going to have to beat. So let’s get it on.”

Arizona (32-18, 19-8) holds a 1½-game lead over OSU (39-12, 17-9) in the race for the Pac-12 title. The Wildcats need only one win to secure the championship and the No. 1 seed in next week’s conference tournament in Scottsdale. The Beavers — who will play one fewer Pac-12 game because of a rainout on March 30 — have to sweep to steal the top spot.

“Last year in the Pac 12, it would be a special thing for us and the university to have this crown,” Hale said. “And to get the first seed in the conference tournament, that’s huge. We want to be able to get that and play on Wednesday night. That’s super important to us.”

The No. 1 seed features several advantages: You start against the No. 9 seed, aka the last team to get in; you get to play in the evening; and you need to win only once to advance to the semifinals. (The Pac-12 Tournament features three pools of three, with each team playing two preliminary games. The winner of each pool advances to the semis, plus one wild card. Seeding is the tiebreaker.)

Even if Arizona were to win the first game of the OSU series, clinching the conference title, don’t expect the Wildcats to ease up on the gas pedal.

“People say, ‘Well, you gotta win one game.’ Our theory is, we want to win two out of three,” Hale said. “That’s what we’ve tried to do all year. Especially in our house.”

Arizona is 18-5 at home. The Wildcats have lost only one series at Hi Corbett (ASU in mid-March) and have swept their last four at the “Juice Box.” They’d love nothing more than to have more games at Hi Corbett, and that appears to be a possibility.

D1Baseball and Baseball America continue to project Arizona as a 2-seed in their NCAA Tournament predictions; D1’s latest has the UA going to No. 11 overall seed Indiana State, while BA has the Wildcats at No. 16 UC Santa Barbara. But D1 included a notable nugget in the preface to this week’s projections: “Our belief is that whoever wins the Pac-12 showdown between the Beavs and Wildcats this weekend will find their way to a host site.”

Hale and his staff have considered those scenarios. It’s not something they discuss with the players.

“Myself and the coaches, we worry about that kind of stuff. But the players are just laser focused on playing good baseball,” Hale said. “You never know how that’s going to fall out. The year we won it, in 1986, we had to go to Texas, and it was a very tough regional in Austin. So it doesn’t matter where you go — you’re gonna have to beat teams like Oregon State.”

Despite its geographical disadvantages, OSU has emerged as arguably the premier program in the Pac-12. Since 2000, the Beavers lead the league with three College World Series championships; they’re second behind Stanford with six CWS appearances; and they’re tied for second behind the Cardinal with five regular-season conference titles.

Led by star second baseman Travis Bazzana, who might be the first pick in the MLB Draft, this year’s team has lived up to its billing. The Beavers were picked to win the Pac-12 in the preseason coaches’ poll.

The Wildcats were picked to finish ninth. It still annoys and motivates them.

“We’re not the ninth-best team in this conference,” junior right-hander Anthony “Tonko” Susac said. “It’s my third year here, and this is the winningest team I’ve ever been around. I sensed that from the beginning, sensed that from the fall.

“When (the poll) came out, we all kind of laughed. We knew that we had a really good chance to be really good this year. Just gotta finish the job.”

May night

Kent (3-2, 3.12 ERA) will square off against a pitcher Arizona knows well.

Right-hander Aiden May played for the Wildcats last season after spending one year at Pima Community College. May went 5-3 with a 6.33 ERA. He entered the transfer portal in late June.

“It wasn’t a huge surprise for me because I had heard rumors during the year that he was thinking about doing it,” Hale said. “He wasn’t really good about hiding it.

“When we had our meeting at the end of the year, I was a little surprised he didn’t tell me then. He waited till the last second of the portal closing to get in there. I had a good idea where he was gonna end up. It’s just the new way of college sports.”

May, who missed time earlier this season because of an injury, returns to Tucson on a hot streak. He hasn’t allowed a run in his past three outings, yielding just 10 hits while striking out 30 batters in 20⅓ innings. May is 5-0 with a 2.77 ERA.

“He’s been great,” Hale said. “He was good for us. His numbers obviously weren’t as good. But he still has the great stuff, the fastball that’s electric and the slider. And he competes. He’s a very, very good competitor. So it’ll be a tough game for us.”

Inside pitch

UA left fielder Easton Breyfogle (hamstring) is “getting close” to being able to return, Hale said. Breyfogle’s status will be determined before Thursday’s game. With TJ Adams (shoulder) out this week, Brandon Rogers is expected to join Brendan Summerhill and Emilio Corona in the outfield.

If Breyfogle is unable to suit up, the fourth outfielder likely will be sophom*ore Casey Hintz, a two-way player who mostly has pitched this season. Hintz is tied for the team lead with 23 appearances out of the bullpen. He has eight career at-bats.

Hale on Bazzana, who ranks in the top six nationally in home runs (26), batting average (.424), on-base percentage (.589), slugging percentage (.972) and walks drawn (66): “He’s a special player. One of the things that people should come watch is the passion that he plays the game with. He’s an Australian kid, and he loves the game of baseball. You can tell the moment he walks on the field. He never stops talking. He bounces around. He plays all facets of the game very well. It’s exciting to watch great players. It always has been.”

The scheduled starters for Friday are RHP Jacob Kmatz (5-2, 3.65 ERA) for OSU and RHP Clark Candiotti (6-2, 3.01) for Arizona. Saturday’s probable starters are right-handers Eric Segura (6-1, 4.84) and Cam Walty (8-1, 2.83).