After rare road success, Wildcats are back home playing for Pac-12 Tournament berth vs. USC

Fresh off back-to-back road wins for the first time all season, Arizona will be hosting USC at Hi Corbett Field to close the regular season this weekend.

The Wildcats are coming off consecutive road wins in very different ways, defeating Stanford in a slugfest 21-20 Sunday to avoid a sweep before holding on to beat UC Irvine 4-3 on Monday in a game in which a number of younger players started and saw more playing time than usual.

“They rebooted on Sunday and they were not going to be denied,” said UA coach Chip Hale, whose team enters Thursday’s series opener tied for ninth in the Pac-12 standings — with the top nine teams making the conference tournament next week in Scottsdale. “All of the different difficulties in the game, and Stanford coming back a couple of times.

“On Monday, it was really interesting to watch because we gave some guys off that usually play, and they were into the game probably more than they usually are when they’re playing.”

The freshman trio of Mason White, Casey Hintz and Maddox Mihalakis combined for five hits and two RBIs, including the go-ahead run driven in by Mihalakis on a single to score Hintz in the eighth inning.

The Wildcats have been on the wrong side of a number of walk-offs this season, most recently in the series opener against Stanford last Friday, as well as a couple of losses on the road against Oregon State. Those losses made these two one-run wins that much bigger for the team.

“I told these guys after the game: It’s like we make one bad pitch in the whole inning, and it’s the pitch that is the home run to tie the game,” Hale said. “We have done it over and over, so we just have to complete the at-bat.”

As the top offense in the Pac-12, Arizona will have the challenge of facing the top pitching staff in the conference as USC carries a team ERA of 4.06 into this series.

The Trojans are led by a pair of transfers, right-handers Blake Sodersten (4-2, 2.92) and Caden Aoki (4-1, 2.04). Aoki’s ERA leads the conference and ranks ninth in the country. He is also coming off Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honors after throwing eight shutout innings against Arizona State.

“They pitch in, they pitch out, they pitch up and they pitch down,” Hale said. “They change speeds really well, so we’re going to have to stick to a plan.

“They’re a very good staff. They play really good defense. So it’ll be a fun series.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

The Pac-12 Tournament expanded from eight to nine teams this season. Arizona has the tiebreaker over Cal after sweeping the Golden Bears earlier this season. Cal plays in Seattle against second-place Washington in their final series. Arizona is also only a half game back of eighth-place Washington State, which hosts No. 4 Stanford.

The challenge for the Wildcats in this final series will be focusing on what they can control on the field and not outside factors such as the scores of other games that could impact whether they advance to the conference tournament.

“We’re lucky because we have a veteran group,” Hale said. “We have older players that understand that, and that’s sort of been our battle cry the whole year. We have been in some games we’ve been out of, but the key was to play every pitch as if it’s a tie game. I think we have that psyche already.”

Inside pitch

Mac Bingham (3.68 GPA), Dawson Netz (3.63), Trevor Long (3.83), TJ Nichols (3.93) and Anthony Susac (3.64) all earned selection to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team.

Nik McClaughry was selected as a semifinalist for the 2023 Brooks Wallace Award, the College Baseball Foundation announced. The award honors the nation’s top shortstop. McClaughry is hitting .330 with 31 RBIs and 62 runs scored. He has also recorded a .981 fielding percentage and leads the conference with 148 defensive assists.

UA remains the conference leader as a team in runs scored (424), hits (586), doubles (130), triples (27), average (.318) and on-base percentage (.403).

Kiko Romero leads the Pac-12 with 75 RBIs, and Chase Davis is tied for the conference lead with 17 home runs.

USC freshman Austin Overn leads the country with 13 triples. He also leads the Trojans with a .321 batting average.