The waiting game has begun in Coral Gables, Florida.
The already altered schedule for the NCAA Tournament’s Coral Gables Regional on Friday was wiped out because of rain. The games featuring Miami, Canisius, Arizona and Ole Miss were rescheduled for Saturday — but there’s no guarantee they will be played at the designated times.
South Florida was under a tropical storm warning Friday. The “window of concern” is Saturday morning through Saturday evening, per Weather.com.
The regional opener between host Miami and Canisius was rescheduled for 9 a.m. Tucson time Saturday. Arizona and Ole Miss are supposed to start 55 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1.
Assuming the tropical storm clears by Saturday evening, it’s conceivable the regional could start that night. It’s also possible that it will run Sunday-Tuesday — although, in typical fashion for South Florida this time of year, there’s about a 50% chance of thunderstorms every day.
The NCAA has multiple contingencies if any or all games cannot be played. Most favor the highest-seeded team, which in this case is Miami.
Flexible Flanagan
Whenever the regional gets underway, pitching depth will be at a premium. That hasn’t been a strength for Arizona this season, primarily because of injuries. But the Wildcats do have a valuable chess piece in their bullpen.
Veteran right-hander Quinn Flanagan has pitched in every conceivable situation this season. He has started once. He has been used in long relief. He has been Arizona’s setup man (his primarily role). And he has finished games.
“It’s been huge,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “At the start of the year ... he was able to pitch two, three innings at a time. Then basically went into the setup role, closer role, back to the setup role.
“It’s all about matchups this time of the year. So if we have a spot in the order where Quinn matches up better than Trevor (Trevor Long, Arizona’s leader in saves), he would probably close and Trevor would pitch the seventh and eighth. So we’re going to go back and forth with that.”
Flanagan, who was selected to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team, has made a team-high 31 appearances. He has a 5-1 record and a team-low 1.72 ERA.
Flanagan has pitched two-plus innings 11 times this season, including twice in the Pac-12 Tournament. In his lone start, against Dixie State on March 1, he allowed two hits in five scoreless innings. He also limited Stanford — the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament — to one hit in four scoreless innings on March 21.
Flanagan spent most of his first two healthy seasons at Arizona (2019-20) as a starter. He shifted to a relief role last season. It required physical and mental adjustments.
“As a starter, you have your one day a week where you’re just totally locked in,” Flanagan said. “As a reliever you (can) get your name called at any time. So it’s just getting ready to go into whatever situation you’re called upon. That was probably the biggest thing to overcome.”
Flanagan has pitched multiple times in a series on nine occasions this season (including the Pac-12 Tournament). He’ll likely be called upon more than once in Coral Gables, and he won’t be the only one.
“Especially when you get to tournament play, the bullpen becomes super significant because those guys have to pitch multiple times,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “A lot of times in (regular-season) weekends, maybe a guy or two does that. But in tournament play, that’s going to be asked from several guys.”
Rookie Rebel’s rise
The pitching matchup for Arizona-Ole Miss features left-hander Garrett Irvin and righty Dylan DeLucia. Irvin has been a staple in the Wildcats’ rotation since 2020. DeLucia has been something of a pleasant surprise for the Rebels.
DeLucia, a transfer from Northwest Florida State College, began this season as a reliever.
So how did he become Bianco’s choice to start a regional?
“He may not want to hear this, but the truth is we had tried some guys before. And some guys have failed,” Bianco during the pre-regional news conference — with DeLucia sitting and smiling next to him. “When you look at our rotation, Derek Diamond is the lone survivor from the first weekend.
“To Dylan’s credit, when he got inserted there some five, six, seven weeks ago, there was no doubt he was going to go after that. There’s a lot of reasons that we got to this point, that we’re here. But I don’t know if there’s a bigger one than Dylan. He really stabilized things.”
DeLucia tied for second in SEC regular-season play with five wins, even though he made only eight total starts. He’s 5-2 with a 4.57 ERA. He has 67 strikeouts in 67 innings.
“Even in the weeks where we were losing two out of three, we were winning on Friday. We won a bunch of Fridays,” Bianco said. “He’s just been a difference maker.”
