OMAHA, Neb. โ In the years to come, as Arizonaโs 10-0 run through the 2012 postseason becomes bigger than life, stories passed from generation to generation will make the Wildcats 10-0 streak seem like 100-0.
Arizona won โem all, a post-season march through Omaha that matched the schoolโs matchless national championships of 1976, 1980 and 1986 and, depending on whoโs telling the story, maybe it surpassed โem all.
The Wildcats outscored their opposition 88-28 in a perfect postseason, including 27-8 at the College World Series. It had almost no numerical resemblance to those national titles won by Jerry Kindallโs teams because, if you recall, those champions of yesteryear were endearingly known as the โCardiac Cats.โ
Yet if you followed Arizonaโs four-game sweep at Ameritrade Park, either watching on ESPN or sitting through the humidity in downtown Omaha, youโll remember the tension as much as the celebratory fireworks and right-fielder Robert Refsnyder cradling the championship trophy after the final out in the final game of an unforgettable season.
โItโs the hardest thing Iโve ever done,โ said Refsnyder, the Most Outstanding Player in the 2012 World Series. โWe won every game, but it just seemed like such a struggle. It made me understand how good you have to be to get this trophy.โ
Arizona won 4-1. It seemed like 4-3. Or closer.
It won because UA coach Andy Lopez made two career decisions, bold and productive decisions that will accompany him into the College Baseball Hall of Fame some day.
Lopez started sophomore pitcher James Farris instead of All-American Kurt Heyer, and he did not pinch-hit for defensive replacement Brandon Dixon, who won the game with a double in the ninth inning.
In the coaching boxscore, Lopez was 2 for 2.
Arizona reached the championship game because its core group of five juniors โ Refsnyder, Heyer, Joey Rickard, Alex Mejia and Seth Mejias-Brean โ were as good as any group of five players in Arizonaโs long and bountiful baseball history.
But it won Monday because Dixon and Farris delivered in the biggest game of their lives, and the most important game at the UA in 26 seasons. Dixon started one game a year ago. Farris pitched one inning. So donโt say this team was ready-made to win the College World Series.
โI saw Coach Lopez at the hotel last night and he told me, โYouโve got the ball,โ โ said Farris, who had not pitched for 22 days. โI was nervous at the beginning, but I turned off my phone, stayed in my hotel room all day and got myself mentally prepared. I just pounded the (strike) zone. I loved being in that moment.โ
Lopezโs faith in Farris was made easier because he had, if necessary, Game 3 and Heyer in reserve, but cโmon, Farris pitched so little last year that he considered transferring. But his options were limited. He had never been recruited by any other school.
And there he was, dueling successfully with South Carolina ace Michael Roth, perhaps the most accomplished pitcher in College World Series history, pitch for pitch.
โJames was matched up against a legend,โ said Lopez. โBut he gave us inning after inning after inning after inning. I was happy, happy happy.โ
In the ninth, with a 1-1 tie, Lopez decided he would pinch-hit for Dixon, a defensive replacement from Southern California who chose Arizona over an offer from Cal-Riverside, of all teams.
Dixonโs double to left won the game.
โI really wanted to hit in that situation,โ Dixon said. โI didnโt know what they had in mind, but I wasnโt going to look in the dugout for a pinch hitter.โ
Lopez waffled briefly, but stuck with Dixon when encouraged to do so by assistant coach Matt Siegel.
Again, the Wildcats seemed to be charmed. Everything they did since beating Arizona State and winning a piece of the Pac-12 title on the final day of the regular season, in the bottom of the ninth, every move they made, seemed to work. Isnโt that how you win a national championship?
In the fifth inning, trailing 1-0, South Carolinaโs Roth leaned against the dugout railing and told a Gamecock teammate what almost everyone at TD Ameritrade Park was thinking:
โI said, โThis is what Florida mustโve felt like last year in the championship game,โ โ said Roth, who was part of South Carolinaโs 2010 and 2011 national titles. โWhen we beat Florida, we were making all the plays. We did everything right. Tonight โ this week โ thatโs what Arizona did. โ
After the Gamecocks tied it in the seventh, Refsnyder, a willful player whose toughness attracted the New York Yankees and tempted them into drafting the right fielder in the fifth round, suspected that his teammates might be losing their grasp.
โRobert walked up and down the dugout saying, โWeโre gonna win this game, weโre gonna win this game,โ โ Lopez remembered. โEven I started to believe him.โ
After the game, embracing the NCAA trophy, Refsnyder posed for pictures with UA fans standing behind the first-base dugout. At one point, Heyer leaned in to kiss the trophy. Then Mejia, the UAโs All-America shortstop, gave his teammate and the trophy a hug.
โOh, baby,โ said Mejia. โIt doesnโt get any better than this.โ
