Jay Johnson has said it repeatedly during what has become a historic Arizona baseball season: The Wildcats have more than nine starting-caliber players.
The Cats’ depth was never more evident than in their series- and conference-clinching comeback win at Oregon State on Sunday, when members of the bench contributed on and off the field.
Let’s start with the latter. Arizona trailed OSU 5-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning in Corvallis, and it appeared the Beavers’ lead would grow even more when Wade Meckler ripped an apparent double into the right-field corner with two runners on base.
But Meckler missed first as he headed for second. Pac-12 Networks captured the play perfectly, including several Wildcats in the first-base dugout pointing and yelling as Meckler stepped over the bag. He was ruled out, ending the inning and keeping the score at 5-1. The Wildcats would rally to win 6-5.
“There’s like five guys that were right in line with first base that started pointing right away while the play was still going on,” Johnson said. “Those guys were super engaged all game long; they’ve been engaged, mentally, the entire season.”
Johnson put his trust in a reserve to get the rally going. Freshman Chase Davis pinch-hit for Tony Bullard to lead off the eighth. Davis worked the count to 3-2 and lined a single to center field.
Tyler Casagrande came up next. Casagrande has emerged as a spark off the bench in recent weeks, delivering several clutch hits. He got a spot start Sunday against OSU right-hander Jake Pfennigs and smacked the next pitch into left-center for another single.
Kobe Kato’s bloop single to left drove in the tying run and set the stage for another backup to play an integral role in the ninth.
After lifting Bullard, Johnson inserted Kyson Donahue at third base. Donahue had appeared in only nine games with just eight plate appearances. With one out in the ninth, he took one for the team, getting hit by a fastball from OSU reliever Chase Watkins. Donahue advanced to second on a groundout and scored the winning run on a bloop single by Nik McClaughry.
“So many guys contributing to that rally ... I think that’s the real story,” Johnson said. “Some of the at-bats were taken by guys that haven’t been at the forefront of this thing. Seeing the enthusiasm of the team made me very proud to be their coach, regardless of the result.”
The result was significant. Coupled with Stanford’s win over Oregon later Sunday afternoon, it gave Arizona at least a share of the Pac-12 championship. If the Ducks lose any of their final three games against Cal, the Wildcats (38-14, 21-9) will win the conference outright. Regardless, Arizona has locked up the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament by virtue of taking two of three from Oregon earlier this season.
The Wildcats last shared the Pac-12 title in 2012, when they won the College World Series. Their last outright conference crown came in 1992. Since Johnson became the UA coach in June 2015, a different school has won the league every season.
“It’s very meaningful,” Johnson said. “If you’ve studied Pac-12 baseball history, you know how difficult this accomplishment is.
“I thought we had an Omaha team in 2020. We had some good early-season wins. The chemistry of that group was taking shape. And on March 12, 2020, the message was, ‘Hey, what is happening across the globe right now (the pandemic) is out of our control. But where we want to go, what we want to do, all that’s changing on that is a delay in when we get there.’
“I’m proud of those guys. A lot of them returned this year, persevered through a couple of disappointments last year with the season getting canceled. Came back ready. And led us in a big-time way.
“This is a great, perennially successful program. But Pac-12 success hasn’t always come easy. And so, especially this year, with old players, veteran teams, obviously really good coaches, really good pitching staffs, this is a massive deal.”
Tournament talk
Barring an unexpected outcome in the final series against Dixie State Thursday-Saturday, Arizona should secure a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The UA already made the first cut of predetermined sites to host regionals. The final 16 will be revealed at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. The full field of 64 will be released the following morning.
Arizona currently sits at No. 6 in RPI — a mark that isn’t likely to improve even with a sweep over Dixie State, which is 234th. Baseball America moved the Wildcats up one spot, from No. 9 to No. 8, in its latest Top 25. D1Baseball.com did the same, nudging the UA up to No. 6.
D1Baseball projects Arizona as the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, placing Florida State, UC Santa Barbara and Grand Canyon in the Tucson Regional.
Inside pitch
The bullpen also played a critical role in Arizona’s comeback Sunday, limiting OSU to two runs in nine innings after opener Austin Smith failed to record an out. As Johnson noted, four of those relievers got roughed up in Corvallis in 2019: Quinn Flanagan, Randy Abshier, Gil Luna and Vince Vannelle combined to surrender 12 earned runs and 12 walks in six innings. On Sunday, those four yielded one earned run and three walks in 6 1/3 frames. Vannelle got the final six outs to improve to 4-2.
Veteran center fielder Donta’ Williams went 4 for 5 with a double, a run and two RBIs Sunday top extend his hitting streak to eight games. Since April 13, he has raised his batting average from .268 to .342. Williams leads the team in runs (67), walks drawn (44) and on-base percentage (.496).
Sunday’s win improved Arizona’s record in one-run games to 7-6 and its record in true road games to 9-8.
