Arizona knows what it’s up against in the Tucson Regional.
Whether that will help the Wildcats advance in the NCAA Tournament remains to be seen.
Arizona drew the No. 5 seed in the field Monday, and, as expected, will open regional play against Grand Canyon. The first pitch is slated for 7 p.m. Friday at Hi Corbett Field. The 1 p.m. matchup pits Oklahoma State against UC Santa Barbara — teams the UA faced in the 2016 College World Series.
Every recent projection had paired the Wildcats and the Lopes, who punched their ticket by winning the Western Athletic Conference championship Saturday. Anticipating that matchup, Johnson and his staff started prepping for GCU on Sunday. They already had a solid foundation.
The two teams face each other regularly and met twice this season. The Lopes took the first meeting, winning 5-4 in 10 innings on April 13 in Phoenix. The Wildcats captured the rematch, winning 13-2 on May 4 in Tucson.
“It obviously will grab our players’ attention,” Johnson said. “They will be respected, and we’ll know we need to put in a good week of preparation.”
Despite Arizona’s familiarity with GCU, Johnson said he would “completely start over with their team” in terms of scouting. There are two reasons for that. One is the fickle nature of college-aged athletes.
“The players in college baseball, it’s not even year to year, it’s day to day with this age group,” Johnson said. “We played them May 4. That feels like a really long time ago to me.”
The other factor is the pitching matchup. Arizona hasn’t seen GCU’s Friday-night starter, junior right-hander Pierson Ohl, who’s 10-1 with a 2.36 ERA and has thrown seven complete games. The latter is tied for most in the nation.
Arizona coach Jay Johnson has a .762 winning percentage at Hi Corbett Field, where the Wildcats will get to play the regional, and if they win that, the Super Regional.
Nor have the Lopes seen the Wildcats’ presumptive Friday starter, righty Chase Silseth (8-1, 5.29). Johnson said he wouldn’t reveal starting pitchers until gameday throughout the postseason, but all signs point to Silseth.
“You’re gonna face a different pitcher,” Johnson said. “Everybody’s pitching staff in the opening game of the tournament, all hands will be on deck.”
Arizona last faced Oklahoma State in the 2017 Frisco Classic. They squared off three times in the ’16 College World Series. The Wildcats lost the first meeting before winning the next two to secure a spot in the CWS Finals. They defeated UCSB in the losers’ bracket after the initial defeat vs. OSU.
The players have changed since then, but the coaches remain the same — Johnson, Josh Holliday (OSU) and Andrew Checketts (UCSB). They’re all about the same age and rose through the coaching ranks on roughly the same timeline.
“If I go back 15 years or 16 years,” Johnson said, “when I was busting my tail and cutting my chops in recruiting, you think about, ‘OK, who were the guys really doing that at that time?” It was Andrew Checketts, the coach at Santa Barbara. It was Josh Holliday. ...
“So it’s not a surprise that these are the guys that we’re facing off against.”
Home sweet home?
Arizona is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2017 and its third in six seasons under Johnson. The tournament was not held last year after the pandemic shuttered the season in early March.
This year marks the 15th time in program history that Arizona will host the opening round. It’s the second time the Wildcats will host at Hi Corbett. The first time, in 2012, they advanced to Omaha.
Arizona has been dominant at home under Johnson. His overall winning percentage is .646 (203-111). At Hi Corbett, it’s .762 (128-40). In road or neutral-site games, it’s .514 (75-71).
“It’s enormous,” Johnson said of getting to play in Tucson. “It’s validation of a job well done for the season. I take a lot of pride in how we play at Hi Corbett Field. I know our players do as well.
“It’s a great home-field advantage, and we want to run this thing as hard and as far as we possibly can. There’s no place I’d rather do that than our own ballpark.”
Inside pitch
Only one Wildcat, outfielder Tanner O’Tremba, has NCAA Tournament experience, having made five postseason appearances for Texas Tech in 2019. Johnson doesn’t believe Arizona’s lack of NCAA experience will matter. “Not this year,” he said, “because nobody in the country has played in the NCAA Tournament in two years.”
Certain plays are reviewable during the NCAA Tournament. Johnson and his staff were able to familiarize themselves with instant replay at this year’s Frisco Classic. “I’m all for it,” Johnson said. “In the Pac 12, we need to get that done next year.”
Johnson considered it a “lock” that the Pac-12 would send six teams to the NCAA Tournament, and that’s how it played out. He thought the selection committee did a good job overall considering the circumstances — e.g., some conferences only playing intraleague games. “This was a hard job for the committee this year,” Johnson said. “Not all schedules were created equal. Not all seasons were created equal. Not all fall practices were created equal.”
