LUBBOCK, Texas – Sam Houston State flipped the script on the Arizona Wildcats in the Lubbock Regional on Friday.
Unlike last year’s postseason meetings between the schools, it was the Bearkats who executed in critical moments. As a result, the Wildcats find themselves in a familiar but daunting position: playing for their playoff lives.
No. 3 seed Sam Houston State upset No. 2 seed Arizona 5-4 in a rain-delayed opening game at Rip Griffin Park. The defeat relegates the Wildcats (37-20) to the losers’ bracket. Arizona will face No. 4 seed Delaware at noon Tucson time on Saturday. Sam Houston State will face top seed and host Texas Tech.
Arizona played in – and won – several elimination games in last year’s NCAA Tournament, making it all the way to the College World Series finals. The Wildcats have done it before, and they’ll have to do it again to advance.
“I think it’ll help immensely,” senior shortstop Louis Boyd said. “Last year we battled a lot when we were behind. We’re just going to take that experience, be comfy in tough situations and get on the tough road back.
“We know it’s going to be a tough road from here on out. But we’re ready to win four games straight, starting with tomorrow.”
In a postgame meeting with his players that lasted about 10 minutes, UA coach Jay Johnson stressed that they can’t win the regional Saturday. The Wildcats have to start by winning the first inning vs. the Blue Hens.
“When you get in a losers’ bracket situation, it’s not even about baseball anymore – it’s about competitiveness, it’s about togetherness,” Johnson said. “One thing that we will do for the duration of our time together, until they tell us we can’t play anymore, is we’ll be extremely unified and we’ll be extremely tough-minded and we’re going to compete extremely hard. That’s what we’re built on.”
The theme entering Friday was familiarity. Arizona and Sam Houston State had met to start last year’s postseason – and played again two days later. The Wildcats swept the Bearkats to knock them out of the Lafayette Regional.
Coaches Johnson and Matt Deggs countered the narrative by deploying starting pitchers who did not appear in either of those games. That Johnson pegged senior left-hander JC Cloney was hardly a surprise; the same couldn’t be said of Deggs’ choice of freshman lefty Kyle Backhus.
Backhus had started only four games all season, and his most recent start, on May 13, lasted only 1 1/3 innings. He surrendered six runs.
But most of the Wildcats’ best hitters bat left-handed, and Deggs said he liked the matchup.
Backhus was reasonably effective, allowing one run in 3 1/3 innings. He did his best work in the bottom of the third, when Arizona failed to capitalize on what could have been a game-changing inning.
Singles by Kyle Lewis, Boyd and Cal Stevenson loaded the bases with nobody out for JJ Matijevic, the Pac-12 batting champion. Matijevic grounded into a 3-6 fielder’s choice to score Lewis and tie the score at 1-1. But that was the only run the Wildcats could muster.
Backhus struck out Jared Oliva, who had fallen behind 1-2 after twice fouling off bunt attempts. Backhus got Oliva with a back-foot slider that literally hit Oliva’s back foot. So what initially appeared to be a wild pitch that would have allowed Boyd to score became a dead ball, to Johnson’s dismay. Alfonso Rivas grounded out to second to end the inning.
“That’s the game,” Johnson said. “Bases loaded, nobody out, JJ, Jared, Alfonso – three first-team All-Pac-12 players, and rightfully so. I don’t know what the stats would be, but we’re going to get 2-3 runs out of that (usually).”
The Wildcats put two runners on base in the fourth and fifth but couldn’t get any of them home – thanks mainly to the Bearkats’ superb defense. In the fourth, with runners on first and second, Lewis ripped a single to right off reliever Dakota Mills. But right fielder Hunter Hearn made a perfect one-hop throw to the plate to nail Nick Quintana – despite the fact that Quintana was running on the pitch.
In the fifth, Arizona again had runners on first and second. Oliva didn’t try to bunt this time, instead hitting a hard grounder down the third-base line. Despite being in front of the bag in case Oliva squared, third baseman Taylor Beene made a diving stop to his right. He stepped on third and retired Oliva for a 5-3 double play.
If you thought those missed opportunities would come back to bite the Wildcats, well, you were right. In the top of the sixth, Sam Houston State senior catcher Robie Rojas hit a two-out, three-run homer off Cloney to give the Bearkats a 4-1 lead.
Asked afterward about the deciding factor in the game, Boyd glanced at the box score.
“They left four on base; we left 11 on base,” he said. “It comes down to that. We didn’t execute a couple plays in big situations. We had the ability to win that game. We all know that.”
With the score 5-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Arizona mounted a rally. RBI singles by Oliva and Rivas made it 5-4. But Sam Houston State again executed flawlessly on defense to prevent the Wildcats from tying the score. Ryan Haug bunted to the right of reliever Colin Cameron, who made a perfect flip to Rojas to nab Oliva at the plate.
Arizona again put two runners on in the eighth, but Bearkats closer Nick Mikolajchak struck out Matijevic to end the threat.
Mikolajchak surrendered a one-out double to Rivas in the ninth. But the freshman right-hander struck out Haug and Quintana to secure his 11th save of the season.
Cloney had been cruising heading into the sixth. Through five innings, he had allowed five hits and one unearned run with no walks and five strikeouts.
Unlike Backhus, Cloney had plenty of postseason experience. He threw 16 shutout innings in the 2016 College World Series. There’s no one Johnson trusts more.
But Cloney figured he’d see a determined Sam Houston State squad after last year’s playoff ouster, and that’s exactly what he got.
Adversity is inevitable in baseball. Johnson foretold it while discussing an entirely different subject last month – the personnel issues at rival Arizona State.
“It’s important for everybody to understand that in this business, storms are coming. The thunderbolts are coming at some point,” Johnson said, unknowingly using an apt metaphor for Friday’s weather.
“It’s how you respond to them that ultimately determines your success or failure.”
Arizona’s first chance to respond comes Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats hope it won’t be their last.
