SCOTTSDALE — Unlike his predecessors, Arizona coach Chip Hale typically doesn’t give long-winded addresses to his team after games.
So it was unusual to see Hale and hitting instructor Toby DeMello huddling with the position players for about 10 minutes after Thursday night’s 7-5 loss to Cal in the Pac-12 Tournament.
What was that all about?
“We’ve just been easing into games offensively,” said Hale, whose team was set to face Stanford in the semifinals Friday night. “We’re just trying to figure out what the issue is and how we can do a better job of preparing them.”
Hale isn’t imagining things. The Wildcats have broken from the gate slowly for a while now, giving themselves no choice but to rally to win games.
The Cal game marked the seventh time in the past 10 contests in which the opposition scored first. Entering Friday, Arizona had failed to score in the first inning in six straight games.
Arizona’s Mason White flips his bat after yet another monster home run to right field — his second such missile in as many days — during the Wildcats’ second pool-play game, this one against Cal, at the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament Thursday at Scottsdale Stadium.
Here’s a brief rundown of how those six games began (and ended):
May 12 at Utah: The Wildcats go scoreless through four innings and trail 2-0 entering the fifth, when they score five runs en route to a 10-4 victory.
May 16 vs. Oregon State: The Cats manage only one hit through two innings, surrender five runs in the third and lose 9-2.
May 17 vs. OSU: The first three UA hitters strike out, Arizona trails 4-0 through two innings and loses 16-1.
May 18 vs. OSU: The Wildcats take a 1-0 lead in the second inning, fall behind 2-1 in the third and trail 3-2 entering the bottom of the ninth before scoring two to win 4-3.
May 22 vs. Washington: The first three UA hitters strike out, and Arizona falls behind 2-0 through one before Garen Caulfield and Mason White hit home runs to give the Wildcats a 4-2 lead through three; they will hang on for a 6-5 victory.
May 23 vs. Cal: The Wildcats trail 3-0 through three and 7-1 through five in a 7-5 setback; seven of the first nine UA hitters go down via strikeout.
Arizona’s Maddox Mihalakis is greeted by teammates Tommy Splaine, Mason White and Garen Caulfield with helmet taps after Mihalakis’ eighth-inning home run against Cal in the teams’ Pac-12 Tournament pool play finale Thursday at Scottsdale Stadium.
It is not uncommon for offenses to start slowly before finding a groove the second or third time the lineup sees a pitcher; there’s a reason managers in college baseball and MLB often pull their starting pitcher before that third matchup.
Arizona has scored its fewest runs (30) in the first inning this season and its second fewest (34) in the second. (We’re not counting the ninth inning because the home side doesn’t bat in the ninth if leading through 8½; in that scenario, the game is over. The Wildcats have scored 25 ninth-inning runs this year.)
Arizona has scored its most runs (56) in the third inning and its second most (53) in the fourth.
Last year’s team did not follow the same pattern. The ’23 Wildcats scored their most runs (78) in the second inning. The first and third innings were tied for second most (64).
Sophomore DH Maddox Mihalakis, who had a home run and four RBIs Thursday, theorized that it’s more about dugout vibes than figuring out the pitcher.
“A lot of it has to do with the presence on the bench and the energy we bring,” Mihalakis said after the Cal game. “Today I felt like we were a bit down, which happens, especially in this game where we know where we’re going into tomorrow anyways. But that’s something that we gotta fix, gotta get the energy up. When this team has energy and we have that presence in the dugout, we’re a really, really good team.”
This year’s club has rallied to win on multiple occasions. Arizona has won via walk-off seven times.
But the Wildcats will be the home team only half the time in the NCAA Tournament, regardless of where they play. They’d rather play with the lead than have to rely on having the last at-bat.
Arizona trimmed a 7-2 deficit to 7-5 on Mihalakis’ three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth Thursday. The Wildcats had the tying run at the plate in the eighth and ninth innings but couldn’t come through.
“That’s our time. We score a lot those later innings,” Mihalakis said. “We started to feel it, feel another one of those walk-off wins, coming-from-behind wins. So the energy started to rise, and we started taking better at-bats. That’s just something we gotta carry throughout all nine innings.”
Outfield options
Hale remains hopeful that Emilio Corona (hand) and/or TJ Adams (shoulder) will be able to return to full-time duty for the NCAA Tournament. Corona has only pinch-run since getting hurt vs. OSU on May 16; Adams hasn’t played since banging into the wall at Utah on May 10.
Arizona has gotten Easton Breyfogle back from a hamstring injury. He started the first two games of the Pac-12 Tournament, albeit at less than full speed.
Hale lifted Breyfogle early Thursday for precautionary reasons and planned to start him again Friday. Xavier Esquer, normally an infielder, replaced Breyfogle in right field. It was Esquer’s first appearance as an outfielder.
“He’s been doing well, and I wanted to see how we would do out there,” Hale said. “Hoping next week that Corona will be ready and Adams will be ready. But if not, we have to have some emergency guys.”
Arizona outfielder Brandon Rogers goes airborne to snare a rope down the left-field line during the Wildcats’ Pac-12 Tournament pool-play finale Thursday against Cal at Scottsdale Stadium.
Breyfogle previously had played center and left. But because he’s not quite 100%, he has played in right at Scottsdale Stadium — giving him the least amount of ground to cover in the spacious ballpark.
Scottsdale Stadium is the most Hi Corbett Field-like stadium in which Arizona plays. It’s 430 feet to straightaway center (with a 30-foot-high wall), 360 feet down the left-field line and 330 down the right-field line.
“It still feels big for us,” said shortstop Mason White, who played center field late in Thursday’s game. “But it’s not a culture shock like some of these other schools that play in smaller parks (experience).”
Brandon Rogers has roamed the vast expanse of left field, and he made two spectacular catches Thursday while running full bore toward the foul line.
“It’s incredible,” Mihalakis said. “I watch them hit the ball out there, and I’m like, ‘Oh man. No way he’s gonna get that.’ And then I see him come out of nowhere and make those plays. It’s crazy. It feels like he does it every game too.”
Inside pitch
No. 4 seed USC defeated No. 6 seed Cal 7-4 on Friday afternoon to advance to the Pac-12 Tournament championship game. It’s the Trojans’ first appearance in the finals.
The Arizona-Stanford game Friday night marked the last live telecast on Pac-12 Networks, which launched in August 2012. Saturday’s championship game is scheduled to air on ESPNU.
Chip Hale discusses Arizona's loss to Cal in the Pac-12 Tournament and possible changes to the starting rotation heading into the NCAA Tournament (video by Michael Lev / Arizona Daily Star)
