Big 12 baseball champs Arizona Wildcats to hit the road for NCAA tourney

After his Wildcats won the Big 12 Baseball Championship in comeback fashion Saturday, Arizona coach Chip Hale pleaded their case for a top-16 spot in the NCAA Tournament.

“I would hope that we’re in consideration to host,” Hale said after Arizona rallied to defeat TCU 2-1 in 10 innings at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

“Winning the Big 12 is a big deal for me. If you look at all the quad wins and these things they look at, we’re in pretty good shape.

“(But) that’s not up to us. If we get to host again, we’ll play better than we did last year, I know that. If we have to go on the road, we’ll go. We’ll play whoever we have to play. You have to beat everybody anyway.”

Arizona will be going on the road. The UA did not land a host spot Sunday. Nor did anyone from the Big 12 Conference. The Wildcats’ NCAA destination will be revealed Monday morning.

Arizona somewhat surprisingly earned one of the 16 host spots last year despite having an RPI of 31. The Wildcats had multiple things going for them, though: They had won both the regular-season and postseason Pac-12 championships and had the No. 1-ranked nonconference strength of schedule.

Arizona finished fourth in the Big 12 in the regular season before capturing the tournament title, which nudged its RPI up to 27. The Wildcats’ nonconference strength of schedule ranks 171st, per WarrenNolan.com. It wasn’t for lack of trying.

Arizona opened the season against Ole Miss (current RPI of 12), Clemson (9) and Louisville (32) in Arlington. The UA went back to Texas two weeks later to face Texas A&M (50), Mississippi State (35) and Tennessee (11).

The Aggies were ranked No. 1 by D1Baseball when the Wildcats defeated them Feb. 28. Texas A&M ended up having a disappointing season and might not make the NCAA Tournament.

Arizona’s nonconference SOS also got dragged down by San Diego (129) not being as good as it was last year; Rice (209) having a down year; and Pepperdine (281) being among the worst teams in Division I.

Additionally, midweek opponents UT Arlington (167), New Mexico State (172) and Seattle (279) ended up outside the top 165 in RPI. Even Grand Canyon (108), which beat Arizona twice in three matchups, had a poor season by its recent standards.

On the flip side, Arizona notched 12 Quad 1 wins, the most of any team that didn’t play in the SEC or ACC; and 23 combined Quad 1 and 2 wins, fifth most in the nation.

Hosting didn’t help the Wildcats last year. They got swept by GCU and Dallas Baptist.

“We were sky high last year, and we got punched right in the face in the regional,” Hale said. “So we have to be ready to go come next Friday.”

Conference realignment offers new postseason possibilities for a team like Arizona. In lieu of hosting, the Wildcats could play in a West Coast regional. D1Baseball’s projection before the hosts were revealed had Arizona in the Eugene Regional hosted by No. 13 overall seed Oregon. That scenario wasn’t feasible in the past because teams couldn’t be sent to regionals hosted by schools within their conference.

“We’re good wherever we go,” Hale said before the Big 12 Tournament. “We played well when we went to Miami (in 2022). When we went to Arkansas (in ’23), we didn’t play well. It had nothing to do with where we went; it was just how we played and the matchups.

“As soon as the Pac-12 broke up, I felt like they were going to put a regional together with everybody from the old Pac-12. I just had this weird feeling.”

A team such as USC, if it makes it, could be sent to Corvallis. Oregon State played as an independent this year.

Mr. May

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Winning the Big 12 Baseball Championship’s Most Outstanding Player award was nothing new for UA shortstop Mason White. He was the MVP of last year’s Pac-12 Tournament too.

The junior shortstop recalled a message that Hale gave him before that tourney: “Just show the conference who you are.”

The league and venue changed this year, but White played with the same freedom and aggressiveness.

“I went into that tournament just letting it fly and trying to do as much as I could to help us win,” White said. “I’ve been in this spot before where it’s the end of the year and we’re competing to host again. So I was just letting it fly and having fun.”

White finished the Big 12 Championship going 7 for 11 with a double, a triple, three home runs, seven RBIs and seven runs scored. In the past two conference tournaments in which he participated, White went 13 for 26 with three doubles, a triple, five home runs, 12 RBIs and 12 runs scored.

Homegrown talent

White, who attended Salpointe Catholic High School, wasn’t the only Southern Arizona product to shine in Arlington.

Sophomore right-hander Owen Kramkowski, via Walden Grove High, set the tone for the Wildcats’ tournament run with six shutout innings in a 4-1 quarterfinal win over BYU on Thursday.

Senior right-hander Raul Garayzar took the baton Friday and threw a career-high six scoreless innings in the UA’s 12-1 semifinal win over West Virginia.

On Saturday, Ironwood Ridge product Andrew Cain hit the tying home run in the ninth inning after earlier making a difficult catch at the wall in left field. Cain has four home runs in his past seven games.

Not to be outdone, White reached base in the 10th via a hit-by-pitch and scored the winning run.

Seasoned Smith

It’s cliché to say that a first-year student-athlete “isn’t a freshman anymore” at the back end of their rookie season.

In the case of UA right-hander Smith Bailey, it’s actually true.

As the baseball season extends past the conclusion of Arizona’s spring semester, Bailey is no longer a freshman. He has pitched like a veteran in his past two starts, allowing just two runs in 11⅓ innings against Houston and TCU.

“I don’t really think of myself as a freshman anymore,” Bailey said after limiting the Horned Frogs to one run on four hits in 5⅓ frames. “I needed to mature and grow up, and I think I did a good job of that.”

Bailey seemed to be fading down the stretch. He allowed 14 runs in 13 innings in regular-season starts vs. Texas Tech, TCU and Utah – although Hale liked how Bailey pitched vs. the Utes (four earned runs and zero walks in a career-high six innings).

Bailey’s start at Houston on May 17 sparked a turnaround by the UA staff. In seven games from May 4-16, the Wildcats had an 8.56 ERA. In the past four games, their ERA is 0.97.