The Arizona Wildcats aren’t easing into the 2022 season.
Arizona is one of six participants in the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas. The Wildcats open against Kansas State on Feb. 18 — exactly five weeks from Friday, when the teams’ coaches held a news conference to preview the tournament.
Arizona’s three opponents — KSU, Oklahoma and Texas Tech — play in the Big 12. The Red Raiders have played in the College World Series four times since 2014.
Do the Wildcats have what it takes to return to Omaha for a second straight year? They’ll find out sooner than later.
“You get to get a check of your team,” first-year UA coach Chip Hale said. “We think we have a good club. We feel like we know what our starting lineup is going to be, what our top four or five starters are going to be. But we’ll see. There’s a lot of fall All-Americans. We’ll see if these guys can do it against good competition right out of the chute.”
Arizona and Texas Tech are the highest-ranked teams in a field that also includes Auburn and Michigan. The Wildcats are 14th in Perfect Game’s preseason Top 25, and they’re ranked 22nd by Collegiate Baseball. The Red Raiders are 12th and fourth, respectively.
It isn’t unusual for Arizona to participate in an early-season tournament featuring some of the country’s top teams. It’s extremely rare for the Wildcats to open the season anywhere other than Tucson.
This year marks only the third time in the past 15 seasons that Arizona hasn’t started at home. The UA opened the 2016 campaign at Rice. In 2008, Arizona opened at Georgia. Every other year the Wildcats played at home, typically against a cold-weather school from a non-Power Five conference.
Arizona won every one of those series aside from last year’s four-game set against Ball State, which pulled off a split at Hi Corbett Field. The Wildcats also won the road series against Rice and Georgia.
The coaches prepping their teams for the State Farm College Baseball Showdown like the idea of jumping into the deep end of the talent pool.
“We all look forward to seeing how our teams are gonna respond in this type of environment,” Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. “Anybody that thinks they really know, you’re probably kidding yourself.”
Early-season results aren’t necessarily predictors of a club’s performance, especially in college baseball, where warm-weather teams typically have an advantage in February and March. Take Tadlock’s team, for instance.
Texas Tech participated in the inaugural State Farm College Baseball Showdown last year and got swept by Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The 2021 Red Raiders ended up hosting and winning an NCAA regional.
In 2019, Texas Tech swept Michigan in mid-March. Three months later, the Wolverines beat the Red Raiders twice in Omaha, knocking them out of the CWS. They open against each other in Arlington.
“Their team was a totally different team in June than when we played them earlier in the year,” Tadlock said. “Same bodies, same guys, but playing at a way high level.”
The other Wildcats
Kansas State coach Pete Hughes said he hasn’t started scouting Arizona yet.
“I know we’ve got our hands full, that’s for sure,” Hughes said. “We’re trying to get our kids back on track. My focus is getting our program 100% boostered right now before we break down Arizona, Michigan and Auburn. We’ll get into that next week.”
Hughes said he’s striving to make KSU a “national player.” After Hughes guided Kansas State to a 25-33 record in his first season in 2018, KSU has gone 44-30, including a 34-23 mark last season. Kansas State’s next trip to the CWS will be its first.
“It’s a great opportunity for our program,” Hughes said. “Playing against great programs, great coaching staffs. What a way to kick off the college baseball season.”
Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson knows all about the UA program. The Sooners and Wildcats met twice last year in the Frisco College Baseball Classic in Frisco, Texas. Arizona swept Oklahoma by a combined score of 32-14.
Johnson recalled the Wildcats being “really athletic. (They) had a lot of depth in their pitching. Really swung the bats, had competitive at-bats, played great defense.
“Their catcher (Daniel Susac) is probably one of the best in the country — understands the rapport between the pitcher and the catcher. It’s going to be a tough game.”
Daily improvement
Susac has been named a preseason first-team All-American by Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball. PG also named Susac the No. 2 college sophomore in the country.
UA right-hander TJ Nichols came in at No. 17 on that list. Outfielder Chase Davis was No. 41. Pitchers Anthony Susac (No. 59) and Josh Randall (65) made PG’s list of the top 75 freshmen.
More preseason plaudits will come the Wildcats’ way after they made the CWS last season and brought back a bunch of high-end talent. Hale isn’t putting much stock into any team or individual accolades at this point.
“No one’s played a game yet,” he said. “We just try to get a little bit better every day; 1% better is my theme with our group going into the spring.
“We have good players. They were recruited well by Coach (Jay) Johnson before he left. I was blessed to take over a good group. So we’re excited to get started.”
