Mere seconds after I sat down in an unoccupied box seat behind the plate at Hi Corbett Field on Sunday, Oregon’s Jacob Walsh sent the first pitch of the second inning soaring over the “Intimidator” wall in right-center field.
Arizona hasn’t intimidated anyone lately.
To say the UA baseball team is struggling would be like saying “Succession” features the occasional curse word. The Wildcats lost their ninth consecutive conference game Sunday, something that hasn’t happened since 1998.
That was two years removed from Jerry Kindall’s final season as coach. I’m pretty sure not a single current UA player was born yet.
I started covering Arizona baseball in 2016, and the only time I can remember things feeling this dire was 2019, a wild season that I referenced last week. That team couldn’t pitch or field very well, but at least the vast majority of the defeats it suffered between late March and the end of April occurred on the road.
Arizona just got swept at home for the first time since 2018. Before facing the Ducks, the Wildcats had won 10 in a row at Hi Corbett.
So what the heck is going on here? How has a program that made the NCAA Tournament last year and went to Omaha two years ago fallen so far, so fast?
There’s one place to start: the pitcher’s mound.
Arizona’s pitching has been abysmal lately. This isn’t my opinion. The stats say it all.
The Wildcats have allowed at least five earned runs in each of their nine conference losses. They’ve surrendered at least seven in each of the past five.
Arizona’s ERA during the losing streak is 8.64. Oregon had 55 hits in three games over the weekend.
It’s damn near impossible to win when you’re on the wrong end of those numbers.
The Arizona pitching staff's struggles during a nine-game Pac-12 losing streak have put the spotlight on Wildcats associate head coach Dave Lawn.
Coaching consideration
The man responsible for the staff is Dave Lawn, a legendary figure in West Coast college baseball. I’ve had many conversations with “CL” (Coach Lawn) over the years. He’s a great guy with an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball who’s been part of nine NCAA teams and four College World Series squads (including two at Arizona). He coached and developed Mark Prior and Ian Kennedy, among others.
Lawn also played a critical role during the transition from Jay Johnson to Chip Hale, keeping the team from splintering and getting Hale up to speed on personnel, recruiting and all things college baseball.
But as we all know, this is a performance-based business. The pitching staff isn’t performing this year, struggled for a good chunk of last season and, as mentioned, couldn’t get anyone out for long stretches in 2019 — the last time Lawn was the pitching coach before Johnson reassigned him for the following two seasons.
Is this all Lawn’s fault? Of course not. He isn’t instructing his pitchers to groove fastballs down the middle or to fall behind in the count. But something isn’t clicking, and Hale is going to have to make a tough call when the offseason arrives. He’s going to have to consider making a change.
What about the offense, you ask? Although it’s been inconsistent at times — and some at-bats have been maddening — I would argue it’s been good enough to win in most games if the pitching staff had done its part.
Arizona slashed .286/.377/.462 last season; those numbers are currently .298/.379/.510.
The 2022 Wildcats averaged 6.56 runs per game; this year’s team averages 7.27.
In Pac-12 play, Arizona ranks fourth in batting average (.282) and on-base percentage (.370) and third in slugging percentage (.481). The two teams that are ahead of the UA in all three categories, ASU and Oregon, had the benefit of facing the Wildcats’ staff. It’s no coincidence that the last two Pac-12 Players of the Week are Oregon’s Walsh and ASU’s Nu’u Contrades.
You might have thought catcher Daniel Susac and right fielder Tanner O’Tremba would be the players Arizona missed the most this season, but a case could be made that it’s actually Garrett Irvin and Quinn Flanagan — a pair of veteran hurlers who seldom topped 90 mph but knew how to pitch. They brought savvy and stability to a staff that seems to be lacking in both.
Arizona right-hander Aiden May, one of several transfer pitchers who were added to the roster, has allowed 44 hits, including a team-high eight home runs, in 33 innings.
Depth hasn’t delivered
The irony is that Hale believed Arizona’s pitching staff had much better depth this year. Quantity has not necessarily translated to quality. Heck, even the guys who started well — Dawson Netz, Chris Barraza, Eric Orloff — have scuffled of late.
Arizona wasn’t as active as some of its rivals in the transfer portal, and if you want to knock Hale for that, it’s not an unfair criticism. But most of the notable acquisitions the UA made from other colleges were pitchers. Hale and his staff tried to address what they (accurately) perceived as a problem after the staff stumbled down the stretch to end 2022.
Cam Walty was supposed to bring that steadying presence — he displayed it by shutting out Arizona while with Nevada last season — but he wasn’t healthy to start the season and has yet to find a consistent groove or role.
Derek Drees has been one of the Wildcats’ better relievers, but his current 4.91 ERA is nowhere close to the 1.27 mark he authored at Butler last season.
Pima Community College transfer Bradon Zastrow has been Arizona’s most effective starter, posting a 4.01 ERA. But his 1.49 WHIP is worrisome, and he has thrown six innings only once.
Another Pima transfer, Aiden May, has enticing stuff, but he’s allowed 44 hits, including a team-high eight home runs, in 33 innings.
Returnees TJ Nichols and Anthony Susac were supposed to form a 1-2 punch atop the rotation, but it hasn’t come to fruition, for different reasons.
Nichols has every physical tool you could possibly want but has yet to develop into the Friday-night force we all thought he’d become. Given Nichols’ size (6-5), velocity (mid-to-upper 90s) and competitive nature, his stagnation remains befuddling.
Susac has pitched decently (4.57 ERA) but has battled arm issues. He hasn’t issued a walk in 6⅔ innings since returning, providing a glimmer of hope — if he can stay healthy.
Although he’s less involved with pitching than any other aspect of the team, Hale bears the ultimate responsibility as the program’s overseer. He told reporters after Sunday’s game that the current state of affairs is “not acceptable.” We can all agree on that.
For those who’ve suggested that Hale isn’t the right man for the job, it is way too soon to cast that sort of judgment.
The majority of the regular lineup consists of players he inherited. Likewise many of the most-used pitchers.
We don’t know what a Hale-recruited team will look like yet. It took Johnson five years to get back to the College World Series after the magical run of 2016. In between: one regional appearance.
Patience is needed here. Some changes might be too.
<&rule>
Japan comes out victorious in a 3-2 win over the United States during the World Baseball Classic final on Tuesday.
