Several Arizona hitters have slumped since the Wildcats left the comfortable environs of Hi Corbett Field.
Garen Caulfield isn’t one of them.
While many of his teammates are struggling to make consistent contact, Caulfield is putting the ball in play — and, unlike last year, he’s getting results.
The veteran second baseman is batting .500 (15 of 30) entering the Frisco College Baseball Classic this weekend in Frisco, Texas. Arizona’s first game is at 1 p.m. Friday against No. 25 Dallas Baptist.
Caulfield hit just .229 last season and lost the full-time job at second base to Mason White. More than anything, Caulfield was a victim of bad luck: His BABIP (batting average on balls in play) was just .250. The rest of the team: .366.
Caulfield’s BABIP so far this season is .577.
“If you look back to last year ... his exit velocities, all the analytics were really good,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “He just wasn’t getting any hits. So balls are starting to get through the holes for him, which is important for his psyche. It’s not easy to hit the ball hard.
Arizona second baseman Garen Caulfield, shown during a preseason workout, hasn’t succumbed to the whiffing ways that have afflicted many of his UA teammates.
“We always talk about, ‘Don’t worry about the result, it’s a process, yada, yada, yada.’ But when you don’t ever get a hit, it stinks. So the ball is falling. (And) he’s hitting the ball hard still. So those are good things.”
Caulfield was the only Wildcat to register multiple hits Wednesday night, going 2 for 4 with Arizona’s lone RBI in a 6-1 loss at No. 5 TCU. Caulfield has hit safely in every game since Arizona hit the road, going 9 for 15 to raise his average 100 points.
Caulfield had a successful debut season at Arizona in 2022, batting .292 with 37 RBIs in 219 at-bats. He rediscovered his stroke and boosted his confidence last summer in the Cape Cod League, batting .283 with a .377 on-base percentage for the Wareham Gatemen.
“It was definitely a hard year,” Caulfield said before the season of his 2023 campaign. “But that being said, I learned a lot about myself. I think going out and kicking (butt) in the summer helped me a lot mentally to get back to my thought process and my routines that made me good and able to play here. So just refocusing and resetting the mentality and getting back out there this year, it’s a new year and a new opportunity.”
Arizona shortstop Mason White, shown during the season-opening series vs. Northeastern, has scuffled at the plate of late, striking out in 13 of 16 at-bats away from Hi Corbett Field.
K rate not great
Caulfield has struck out only five times in 30 at-bats and has the second lowest K rate (14.7%) among UA regulars behind catcher Adonys Guzman (11.8%).
But making contact has been a major issue for many of their teammates.
Arizona struck out 19 times against TCU, whose pitching coach is former UA assistant Dave Lawn. That marked the third time in the past four games that the Wildcats struck out 19 times. All four were losses. The Wildcats’ four-game total of 63 strikeouts is the most in a four-game span in Hale’s two-plus seasons.
No one has been immune, but it’s been particularly worrisome that the three veterans being counted on to anchor the lineup — Mason White, Emilio Corona and Tommy Splaine — have the most strikeouts. Those three have fanned 40 times in 100 at-bats.
White, in particular, has been out of sorts, striking out 13 times 16 at-bats over the past four games. Two of the three times he put the ball in play, it went over the fence for home runs.
Speaking about the trio after the weekend series at San Diego, Hale said:
“When you lose two out of three, you start looking back at things. When ‘your guys’ don’t get the hits, you struggle. That’s just part of baseball.
“Mason has gone through these little bouts of strikeouts. He’s got another year before the draft, and that’s what scouts will start to look at. How many times are you swinging at bad pitches? How many times are you swinging through pitches that are strikes? Chase Davis went through it. He’s gonna go through that analysis.”
As a team, Arizona is averaging 10.6 strikeouts per game, up from 7.8 last year. The Wildcats’ K rate (strikeouts/plate appearances) of 25.4% is the second highest in the Pac-12. They were tied for second lowest last year at 18.1%.
The five highest team strikeout totals in school history all have happened since 2016 — a reflection of how the sport has placed a greater emphasis on power than contact. The 2022 squad’s 574 strikeouts rank atop that list, while last year’s 460 rank fourth.
The unbeatens
Thirteen Division I teams were undefeated as of Thursday afternoon. Arizona just played one of them and is about to face two more.
TCU is 9-0. Dallas Baptist is 8-0. No. 16 Alabama, which the UA faces at 3 p.m. Saturday, is also 9-0.
No. 20 Indiana, Arizona’s opponent Sunday, is 6-2. The Crimson Tide and Hoosiers square off against each other Friday night.
“This is huge for us,” Hale said. “The RPI world’s a real deal — win, lose or draw.”
Inside pitch
Arizona again is expected to start left-hander Jackson Kent (1-0, 3.00 ERA) and righty Clark Candiotti (0-0, 3.60) to open the weekend. The Sunday assignment could go to RHP Cam Walty, who’s been sharp out of the bullpen (2-0, 2.08).
Sophomore RHP Tony Pluta pitched two scoreless innings of relief Wednesday. He has yet to allow a run in four innings this season. Junior LHP Eric Orloff also has a 0.00 ERA through four frames.
Arizona’s games in the Frisco Classic will be streamed by D1Baseball.com. If you have a subscription to the website, you can add the streaming package for a one-time fee of $14.99. If you don’t, the cost for a subscription plus streaming is $29.99 for the first month, $14.99 thereafter.
Arizona coach Chip Hale discusses the Wildcats’ sweep-avoiding comeback at USD and how it might help them moving forward as they prepare to face four ranked teams in Texas (video by Michael Lev / Arizona Daily Star)
