STARKVILLE, Miss. – Arizona rallied from a four-run deficit to stun Mississippi State 6-5 and win their Super Regional on Saturday, earning a spot in the College World Series.
Freshman catcher Cesar Salazar grounded a single into right field with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning to score Kyle Lewis and silence an overflow crowd of 13,452 at Dudy Noble Field.
Arizona had defeated MSU – the SEC regular-season champion and No. 6 national seed – 1-0 on Friday to set up Saturday’s dramatics.
Arizona returns to the College World Series for the first time since 2012, when the Wildcats won the tournament. That was also their last postseason appearance.
Trailing 5-1, Arizona finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth. After singles by Zach Gibbons and Alfonso Rivas III to start the inning, Ryan Aguilar drilled a three-run homer to right, his team-leading eighth of the season.
JJ Matijevic and Bobby Dalbec followed with singles. But Arizona could neither advance them nor bring them home. MSU reliever Reid Humphreys struck out Salazar and Jared Oliva. The threat ended when Louis Boyd grounded out to shortstop.
The Wildcats weren’t done, however. Cody Ramer – who had struck out three times in four hitless at-bats – led off the bottom of the ninth with a double. After Zach Gibbons – had been 4 for 4 – struck out, freshman Alfonso Rivas III poked a single to left-center to score Ramer and tie the game.
A Justin Behnke walked loaded the bases for Dalbec, who struck out against MSU reliever Blake Smith. Salazar then grounded to short to send the game into extra innings.
Arizona wasn’t sharp in the early going. The UA committed two errors in the top of third. The Wildcats had runners on base in each of the first seven innings. Three of the first six ended with double plays.
Dalbec’s solo home run in the second – his seventh of the season and second of the postseason – knotted the score at 1-1. The tie didn’t last long. MSU scored runs in the third, fourth, seventh and eighth innings. Brent Rooker hit a pair of solo homers for the Bulldogs.
Senior right-hander Nathan Bannister, whose heroics helped the Wildcats get to this point, started for Arizona and pitched well enough to win.
Bannister allowed four runs (three earned) in six-plus innings. He surrendered five hits, walked one and struck out five.
Bannister won two games in a four-day span at last weekend’s Lafayette Regional, throwing 198 pitches in the process. He threw 86 Saturday, including 60 for strikes.
