Arizona wasn’t playing great baseball heading into the final week of the 1986 regular season. The Wildcats had lost four of their previous six games entering a midweek contest against Grand Canyon that preceded the season-ending series against Arizona State.
Coach Jerry Kindall could sense that his team needed a spark. So he had T-shirts made for the players that read: “Second Season.”
Chip Hale was a junior on that team. He recalled the message Kindall was trying to convey.
“OK, here’s where it starts,” Hale said. “We need to win these last games to be a player in the regionals.”
Arizona defeated GCU and swept ASU — hammering the Sun Devils by a combined score of 49-17 over three games. The Wildcats went on to win their third College World Series championship.
Hale, now the head coach at his alma mater, is hopeful this weekend’s series against ASU at Hi Corbett Field can serve as a similar springboard for the 2022 Wildcats. But he also understands — from first-hand experience — that a degree of calm is required amid the commotion of a heated rivalry. Kindall stressed it 36 years ago. It’s still applicable today.
“He was very good about trying to keep us even-keeled ... try to calm us down a little bit, not get us too high,” Hale said Thursday. “It’s the same game. He knew that we as players understood what a rivalry was and how bad we wanted to win those games. So I don’t think he needed to juice us up anymore.”
Hale said players need to set their intensity level to about 80%. Adrenaline will get you to 100%, he said.
“Baseball is not a sport like football where you can go out and hit somebody,” Hale said. “It’s a sport you need to play at about 80%. The biggest deal about this weekend is to keep the guys calm and in their game, because not a whole lot of good comes out of getting too fired up.”
Don’t misconstrue Hale’s words; he cares deeply about the rivalry. He’s fully aware that ASU got the better of Arizona during his playing career, going 16-8 against the Wildcats from 1984-87. Hale also felt the sting off a non-conference loss to the Sun Devils earlier this season.
Arizona led ASU 6-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning of their April 5 game in Phoenix. An error led to four unearned runs. The Sun Devils won 10-6. Only three of their runs were earned as the Wildcats committed three errors. Arizona had just one baserunner over the final four frames.
Hale said he talked to the players “pretty heavily” after that loss. He told them they didn’t play “U of A-esque baseball.”
“We didn’t play like the name across the front of our jerseys says we’re supposed to play,” Hale said.
Hale’s message about the rivalry was sent that night. There was nothing ambiguous about it.
“They know how I feel about this series,” he said.
Sore spot
The UA pitching staff isn’t coming into the ASU series at full health.
Hale said TJ Nichols and Garrett Irvin — the Wildcats’ top two starters — experienced arm soreness during the team’s series last weekend at Utah. Hale anticipates both being able to start this weekend.
“So far it looks like they’re both good to go,” he said.
Nichols, a sophomore right-hander, threw 104 pitches in 6 1/3 innings last Thursday. Hale said Nichols felt soreness “after the fact” and the next day. He allowed six runs on 12 hits.
Irvin, a senior left-hander, threw 69 pitches Friday and was lifted after the third inning. Hale said Irvin “didn’t feel right” from the start and “just didn’t feel like he could get loose.”
Nichols has thrown 51 2/3 innings this season, 8 2 /3 fewer than his total from last year (60 1/3). He has thrown 100-plus pitches four times and 99 on two other occasions. He’s had at least five days of rest between every start.
Irvin has thrown 50 1/3 innings, well shy of last season’s career high of 88 1/3. He has thrown more than 100 pitches three times and 84 or more in four other games.
“I don’t think we’ve pushed anybody on pitch counts,” Hale said. “But it’s getting to be that cumulative effect, where they’ve thrown a lot of innings now. Especially the high-velocity guys like TJ, it starts to mount on your arm.”
Right-hander Chandler Murphy also struggled at Utah but came out of his start healthy, Hale said. Murphy missed the beginning of the season while rehabbing an arm issue.
Righty Dawson Netz is currently unavailable after experiencing what Hale described as a “dead arm” that caused Netz’s velocity to drop. Netz, who has pitched only once since March 27, underwent an MRI that came back clean. He has begun a throwing program to rebuild his stamina.
Freshman lefty Eric Orloff is available to fill in if needed this weekend. Orloff has made 15 appearances, including one start. He’s 1-1 with a 3.63 ERA. He has gone three-plus innings four times and threw a career-high 65 pitches against the Utes on Saturday in relief of Murphy.
Chip and Willie
Like Arizona, ASU tapped into its past when it hired a head coach last June.
Willie Bloomquist played for the Sun Devils from 1997-99 and was named Pac-10 Player of the Year as a junior. He went on to play 14 seasons in MLB, including three with the Diamondbacks (2011-13).
Bloomquist rejoined the Diamondbacks organization in May 2016 as a special assistant to team president and CEO Derrick Hall. Hale was the Diamondbacks’ manager at that time, but he didn’t have a relationship with Bloomquist until they got their current jobs.
Having a UA alum in one dugout and an ASU product in the other adds a little something to the rivalry, Hale said.
“We understand it. We’ve been through it,” he said. “A lot of games up there, and a lot of games down here.”
Inside pitch
Arizona’s bullpen delivered 18 innings of one-run ball in a two-game sweep of Creighton earlier this week. “It was a huge deal that they pitched well, No. 1,” Hale said. “No. 2 ... we got some confidence in guys that need to pitch well for us down the stretch for us to go where we want to go.”
Hale said the Creighton series revealed “a lot” about the character of his club after Arizona dropped two of three at Utah. “It was not fun weather-wise,” he said. “It was cold. It was windy. We were away from family on Easter. We had a day there just to sit and stew about the losses at Utah. Then they came back and just played good baseball. We didn’t rip the cover off the ball. But we battled.”
Third baseman Tony Bullard, who started slowly after missing time because of a shoulder injury, went 3 for 8 with a home run and two RBIs vs. Creighton. “Tony turned a corner in Omaha, and hopefully he continues it here,” Hale said. “He had some great at-bats.”
Arizona (26-12, 11-7 Pac-12) and ASU (19-19, 8-7) are comparable offensively. The Wildcats average 6.8 runs per game, the Sun Devils 7.0; they both have on-base percentages of .381. Pitching is another story. Arizona ranks fourth in the league with a 4.20 ERA, while ASU is last at 6.31. The Sun Devils’ ERA in conference games is 8.18. No ASU pitcher who has thrown more than one inning has an ERA under 4.00. Daniel Susac continues to lead the Pac-12 with a .382 batting average and 65 hits. Chase Davis ranks second in the league with 11 home runs. ASU’s Nate Baez and Joe Lampe are tied for second in doubles (16 apiece).
Arizona has 10 stolen bases in its past four games. The Wildcats had 15 in their first 34.
