OMAHA, Neb. — Every hero has an origin story.
Garrett Irvin is an unassuming left-handed pitcher for the Arizona Wildcats who’s generously listed at 6 feet, 180 pounds.
On the mound, he’s a strike-throwing hurler with a .769 career winning percentage known to his teammates by a single, endearing moniker: Gary.
Irvin first heard the nickname when he was a freshman at Point Loma Nazarene. No one called him Gary when he attended Riverside City College as a sophomore.
A few weeks into his time at Arizona, teammate and fellow pitcher Hunter Cope began referring to Irvin as Gary.
“It’s odd,” Irvin said with a grin Sunday. “My dad’s name is Gary. None of them know that. He loves it, especially when it was trending. It kind of just stuck, and now (pitching coach Nate) Yeskie and everyone calls me Gary.”
It became something more than a nickname when UA coach Jay Johnson tweeted #Gary after Irvin’s complete-game victories over Washington on May 15 and UC Santa Barbara in the Tucson Regional on June 5.
Irvin’s teammates and others took the hashtag and ran with it, tweeting deep into the night after Irvin’s shutout against the Gauchos. Teammate Kobe Kato donned a #Gary T-shirt before Irvin’s next start against Ole Miss.
“It was a lot of fun to look on Twitter and see all my teammates tweeting about that,” said Irvin, who’s expected to start in Arizona’s College World Series elimination game against Stanford on Monday.
They wouldn’t bother if they didn’t like him.
“They would just call me Irvin or something like that,” he said.
On the fateful seventh
When he met with Tucson-based media Sunday, Johnson had about 13 hours to reflect on Arizona’s 7-6, 12-inning loss to Vanderbilt the night before.
Johnson’s views on the game hadn’t changed: He still believed going to Preston Price out of the bullpen was the right move in the seventh inning and that the Commodores’ pitchers deserved the most credit for slowing the Wildcats’ offense.
Johnson and Yeskie chose Price to face Enrique Bradfield Jr. and Carter Young because Price was most similar to Chase Silseth. Bradfield and Young had gone 0 for 6 against the UA starter.
Bradfield singled off Price, and Young hit a two-run homer, giving Vanderbilt a 6-5 lead.
Price, a fifth-year senior, hasn’t pitched with the same precision since returning from an arm injury in late May.
Johnson said Silseth would have remained in the game if he had gotten a strike call on a 3-2 pitch against Jayson Gonzalez. Silseth’s slider appeared to be a strike, but plate umpire Perry Costello called it a ball, sending Gonzalez to first and Silseth to the dugout.
“Bad calls are part of the game,” Johnson said. “We had chances to win after that. I wish it would have been called a strike, though.
“The cause-and-effect of it was what was tough. If Chase finishes that inning, now you have a two-run lead with six outs to get and you can set the pitching up a little different.”
Tough-luck loss
Price’s classmate, Vince Vannelle, took the loss. A local photographer captured him sitting alone in the dugout afterward looking forlorn. He deserved better.
Vannelle entered from the bullpen in the 11th inning with one out and the bases loaded and got the Wildcats out of the jam. In the 12th, Vanderbilt loaded the bases again on an infield single that deflected off of Vannelle’s hand; a misplayed bunt; and a walk.
Vannelle then jammed Gonzalez with an inside fastball. Gonzalez got just enough of the ball to roll it past diving shortstop Nik McClaughry, who was playing in to try to cut down the winning run at the plate.
“He’s as competitive as anybody,” Johnson said of Vannelle. “He’s a really good pitcher in terms of stuff. But his competitiveness, his heart, his character is what makes Vince who he is. Of course he felt tough about that one. But what he did the inning before just to keep the game going was pretty special.”
“He pitched well,” Irvin added. “I think he knows that. He gave us a chance. The final hit was the epitome of the game ... he almost hit it off his hands. But that’s just baseball.”
One-and-dones
The loss to Vanderbilt was Arizona’s fourth in a row by one run in the CWS. Johnson didn’t need to be reminded of that fact.
Although those defeats — including three in 2016 — were gut-wrenching, they’re also a source of pride for Johnson and his program.
“The competitiveness of the players on both of the teams that have been here, the character, their willingness to do whatever it takes, is right where you want it to be,” Johnson said. “I think that says a lot about our program. When you get to this point, you’re only playing elite teams. So the margin between winning and losing is really small.
“We’ve been on the wrong side of a couple of plays that have dictated the outcome. So just keep cracking away at it and put ourselves in a position to be on the right side of it (Monday).”
Holgate’s homer
Right fielder Ryan Holgate hit a no-doubt-about-it two-run homer off Vanderbilt ace Kumar Rocker in the sixth inning to give Arizona a 5-3 lead. The ball almost reached the concourse beyond the bleachers at TD Ameritrade Park.
The home run was Holgate’s third in the past five games and his 11th of the season. Johnson said Holgate has the most raw power on the team. He knew immediately that his latest blast was gone.
What does that feel like?
“It’s awesome,” Holgate said. “It kind of feels like you’re a little kid again, just playing Wiffle ball in the backyard or Little League. It just feels great.”
Inside pitch
Johnson got to spend some time on Father’s Day with his dad, Jerry, who coached him in multiple sports at Oroville High School in Northern California. “I owe any of the success I have to him,” Johnson said. “He was the template of what a real coach is. (He) set a really positive example of how to treat people, how to handle success, how to handle adversity.”
Arizona is 22-10 in elimination games in the College World Series and 3-1 in such games in the CWS under Johnson.
Holgate on facing Stanford for the fourth time this season: “I definitely think it makes it interesting. But at the same time, I think it’s just gonna all come down to that nine innings and that three or four hours. ... Whoever wants more is gonna take it away.”