'In the moment' thinking helps Wildcats reach College World Series

The hero of Arizona’s Super Regional-clinching victory was discussing the winning hit, and what he said had Wildcats coach Jay Johnson beaming.

Freshman catcher Cesar Salazar wasn’t thinking about his previous bases-loaded at-bat, which ended with him grounding out to short. He wasn’t eyeing Mississippi State’s defensive alignment, which had the second baseman in short right field against the left-handed-hitting batter.

Salazar’s sole focus, he said, was hitting the ball hard somewhere. Period.

Salazar was living entirely “in the moment,” which is something Johnson has been preaching from the moment he arrived in Tucson.

“We like to think we have a mental advantage on everybody we play,” said Johnson, whose team faces Miami on Day 1 of the College World Series on Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska.

“It’s very simple: It’s all about process and not getting caught up in the results. Playing the game one pitch at a time. I try to do it as a leader. Our coaching staff tries to do it. And our players have really taken to it.”

Whether Arizona actually is mentally tougher than its opponents is impossible to quantify. But Johnson’s players believe it, and recent results make a compelling case.

In the Lafayette Regional, the Wildcats had to endure multiple rain delays and win three games in two days — including two against host Louisiana-Lafayette — in stifling heat and humidity. In the Super Regional at Mississippi State, Arizona won two one-run games against the No. 6 national seed in front of partisan crowds in excess of 12,000.

In the second game, the Wildcats faced a four-run deficit entering the bottom of the eighth. Salazar’s single in the 11th capped the comeback and personified Arizona’s approach under Johnson.

“You always get frustrated when (an) at-bat doesn’t go how you want it to,” Salazar said. “Baseball’s a game of failure. You’ve got to jump back in and refocus.”

It’s not as easy as Salazar makes it sound, especially for a relatively untested freshman. But he wasn’t the only one who shook off negative results to come through against the Bulldogs.

Fellow freshman Alfonso Rivas III set the stage for Salazar. Rivas’ two-strike RBI single in the bottom of the ninth sent the game into extra innings. In his first three at-bats, Rivas grounded into two double plays and struck out.

“They weren’t very good,” Rivas said. “That’s probably the worst you could do.”

Rivas singled in the eighth — right before Ryan Aguilar hit a three-run, rally-igniting homer — and again in the ninth. This is how Rivas described his mental approach to those plate appearances: “It’s a new at-bat. Just let everything go. … You’ve just got to move on from previous at-bats. You can’t let them affect you.”

Nothing seems to bother these Wildcats, although that wasn’t always the case.

Arizona seemed out of sorts during its most-hyped regular-season series, against Arizona State in mid-May. The Wildcats allowed five runs in the first inning of the opener and never fully recovered, dropping two of three games.

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Arizona also struggled in its first meeting with Louisiana-Lafayette, again falling behind immediately and losing 10-3. But as Johnson sees it, those experiences helped the Wildcats build psychological calluses. He could tell that neither the environment in Starkville, Mississippi, nor the magnitude of the situation would overwhelm them.

“It’s a skill that you have to learn,” Johnson said. “This team has been very good at staying in the moment. We didn’t set a goal to go to the College World Series. We didn’t set a goal to win the Pac-12 championship. It was about improvement on a daily basis. It was really a one-pitch-at-a-time culture.

“What that leads to, in my opinion, is peak performance. They’ve really done a nice job of grasping that. Because it is very difficult to do.

“I liken it to shooting free throws in basketball. It’s impossible not to think about seven misses in a row on the eighth one. And it’s a heck of a lot harder to hit a baseball than sink a free throw.”

Arizona’s mental work began in fall, and it kicked up several notches in January when the Wildcats spent a weekend working with Team Elite Performance, a Reno-based company that promotes team-building through a variety of exercises.

“Being in the moment is definitely a part of our program,” said Dean Whellams, co-owner of Team Elite Performance. “In all of the processes … we discuss the power of being present. Simply put: ‘Win this pitch.’ Also, after working with Jay and his staff for two years (including last year at Nevada), we know that being in the now is a pillar to the culture they are building.”

Johnson’s emphasis on process over results began in fall as well. He and his staff use a point system to score intra-squad scrimmages. Points are earned if the leadoff man gets on base, the pitcher throws a first-pitch strike or a batter gets a hit with two outs and runners in scoring position.

“All the little things that add up to winning is what we celebrate,” Johnson said. “When you take the result out of it, it allows you to play with a clear mind.”

This week’s practices at Hi Corbett Field presented a different sort of challenge: The Wildcats achieved great success the past two weekends, earning their first trip to the College World Series since 2012 and all the attention that comes with it.

It would have been understandable had the team been unfocused or sluggish as it eased its way back into game prep after a taxing trip. But the opposite happened: Arizona had one of its best training sessions of the season Monday evening. It almost caught Johnson off guard.

He shouldn’t have been surprised. Being ready for whatever is right in front of them — be it a midweek practice or a critical postseason at-bat — is part of the Wildcats’ DNA now.

“We just try to stay the same – keep doing what we were doing,” Rivas said. “I thought we practiced normally. I guess we have a lot of good practices.”

Inside pitch

• Two Arizona players — seniors Zach Gibbons and Cody Ramer — earned ABCA/Rawlings West All-Region first-team honors. Right fielder Gibbons has a team-best .381 batting average. Second baseman Ramer is hitting .352. Both were selected by the Angels in the MLB draft last week.

• The Wildcats were scheduled to leave for Omaha on Thursday morning. They will practice there Thursday and Friday before facing Miami on Saturday.