Lev: MLB Desert Invitational ends with a rally, 2 ejections and a gritty UA victory

MESA — Arizona squared off against UC San Diego on a picturesque Monday afternoon at Sloan Park. The temperature at first pitch was 72 degrees. The sun was shining. The slightest of breezes blew. It was as pleasant as could be.

Then the seventh inning happened.

First, third base coach Toby DeMello got tossed. Moments later, UA coach Chip Hale got thrown out.

Mind you, this was all taking place as the Wildcats were coming back to take the lead in a game they eventually won 9-8 to finish the season-opening MLB Desert Invitational with a 3-1 record.

"First one for me," catcher Cameron LaLiberte said when asked if he’d ever seen a coach — let alone two — get tossed during a rally.

The impetus for the dispute, according to the coaches who weren’t ejected: DeMello thought a balk should have been called against UCSD right-hander Aren Alvarez on a pickoff attempt at first. Third base umpire Travis Eggert wasn’t having it and gave DeMello the hook.

Hale trotted out to take over the third base coaching duties. Then he got into it with Eggert, who DQ’d Hale.

While the inning was still going, Hale and DeMello emerged from the first base dugout with UA backpacks slung over their shoulders. They walked about 10 feet behind the plate and up the third base line to exit the park in the left field corner. The UA fans sitting on the first base side roared their approval. The dugout got rowdy too.

"It sparked a little fire," said LaLiberte, who earlier that inning hit a game-tying two-RBI double. "We want to pick up our coaches. They just got ejected fighting for what they believe, and we're gonna make sure we win."

The ejections forced Arizona to shuffle its coaching assignments. Trip Couch moved from first to third. Tommy Splaine, who had the day off from catching, became the first base coach. Couch and pitching coach Dave Lawn shared the managerial duties.

More than anything, though, this became an exercise in the players stepping up and, in a way, coaching themselves.

"Chip has faith in these guys," Couch said. "Chip’s trained these guys well. I would like to think that if none of us were out here with them, they're old enough (to know what to do). That's a credit to Chip and our program. They can handle stuff, a little bit of adversity, and just play."

It helps to have veterans such as Nik McClaughry and Mac Bingham on your side. Both rebounded from uncharacteristic miscues, on back-to-back at-bats, to play key roles in the Wildcats’ four-run ninth inning, which proved pivotal.

With Arizona just having taken the lead, 4-3, in the top of the seventh, the Tritons’ Michael Fuhrman led off the bottom half with a walk. The aptly named Patrick Hackworth — who had a 14-pitch at-bat in his first plate appearance — grounded a ball just to the right of second base.

Fuhrman was running on the play, and McClaughry was covering second, so he appeared to be in perfect position to field the ball — and possibly turn a 6-3 double play. But McClaughry, as sure-handed a fielder as you’ll find at any level of baseball, let the ball get past him, putting runners on first and third.

Jalen Smith then hit a routine fly ball to center field. Bingham camped under it — and dropped it. It would have been a sacrifice fly regardless, but now the Tritons had runners on first and second with no outs. They would end the frame with a 5-4 lead.

Arizona tied it in the eighth, 5-5, on LaLiberte’s infield single, which scored Kiko Romero, who had walked, stolen second and advanced to third on a groundout. (That steal was a sneakily important play.) The score remained tied entering the ninth.

McClaughry led off the inning with a walk. He scored the go-ahead run on Romero’s single. Bingham then blasted a three-run homer to left to make it 9-5. The Wildcats would need every one of those runs.

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"You’ve gotta have amnesia in this game," Couch said. "It's the next pitch. It's the next play.

"I've been in programs and situations where people want to scream at that guy (Bingham) for missing the ball. He knows he missed the ball, right? I asked him what happened. He told me what happened. OK, good enough."

Bingham lost the ball in the clouds that developed over the course of the day.

"He’s a veteran player," Couch continued. "He had a good answer and moved on. He knows it happened. But he's mature enough to just keep playing. Game’s not over."

The season is a long way from over. It’s unwise to draw any conclusions from four games when there are 49 more to go in the regular season.

But there’s also a push-and-pull inherent in college baseball. Hale came into this season vowing to go all out to win every game, having learned last year how every result impacts a team’s RPI and postseason seeding.

It’s tempting and easy to overreact to the first set of games, which are the first impression. It’s hard — but wise — to resist.

Tennessee lost two of its first three games in the MLB Desert Invitational, including the opener against Arizona. But D1Baseball.com dropped the Volunteers only one spot, from second to third, in its Top 25 released Monday. Three games is a tiny sample size. And the difference between winning and losing, between success and failure, can be miniscule.

Just look at UA starter Aiden May’s outing Monday. The right-hander made his Division I debut after transferring from Pima Community College. He was one out away from an indisputably successful first start.

May had allowed only one run through 3 2/3 innings. He got the first two batters in the bottom of the fourth via strikeout.

May then yielded a single. He hit the next batter. Before you knew it, the Tritons had scored two more runs.

Unlike Saturday’s game vs. Fresno State, in which they also trailed 3-0, the Wildcats battled back this time. Then they hung on. UCSD scored three times in the bottom of the ninth and had the tying run on base with two outs. Trevor Long induced a flyout, to Bingham, to end it.

"No bad wins," Lawn said as he left the field.

No one could argue with that.