The subject turned to Cam Walty’s first appearance at Hi Corbett Field, and Arizona coach Chip Hale couldn’t help but chuckle.
He wasn’t in a good mood that day.
Walty, then a sophomore at Nevada, shut out Hale’s Wildcats on April 30, 2022.
How big a deal was that?
It ended a streak of 216 games in which Arizona had scored at least one run. The Wildcats hadn’t been shut out since March 17, 2018.
“That was a heck of a lineup that he cut through,” Hale said.
Arizona had future first-round picks Daniel Susac and Chase Davis, among others. The Wildcats managed only three hits that day, a season low.
Hale and the Cats would have the last laugh, though. After Nevada’s coach, TJ Bruce, left the program in June 2022, Walty entered the transfer portal. Arizona, naturally, expressed interest. The UA had been one of Walty’s finalists coming out of high school, so transferring to Tucson was a “no-brainer,” he said.
Arizona starter Cam Walty yells to his teammates after getting a strikeout against USC in the championship game of the 2024 Pac 12 Baseball Tournament.
Now Walty might be making his final appearance at Hi Corbett. The senior will start Arizona’s second game in the NCAA Tournament’s Tucson Regional on Saturday against Dallas Baptist or West Virginia, depending on the outcome of Friday night’s game vs. Grand Canyon.
Walty has proved to be the best man for just such an assignment.
No Arizona starter — including fellow All-Pac-12 selection Clark Candiotti, who was slated to start vs. GCU — has been more consistent and reliable than Walty. He has allowed three or fewer runs in 11 consecutive starts, including the games that clinched the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles. He has thrown five or more innings in nine of his past 10 appearances.
Walty’s eight wins are the most in the Pac-12. His 2.81 ERA is the third lowest in the league.
Evolving role
And to think, Walty wasn’t even in the starting rotation when the season began.
The third spot came down to Walty and fellow right-hander Anthony “Tonko” Susac. It was basically a dead heat. The coaches decided to go with Susac because he needed a longer runway to warm up. Additionally, Walty had shown the previous season that he could be a swing guy if necessary.
In his first start of the 2024 season, Arizona RHP Cam Walty allowed one run in six innings in a 12-1 victory over Indiana in the Frisco College Baseball Classic in Frisco, Texas.
Walty termed his role at the start of this season as a “question mark.” He might pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen. He might start midweek games.
“But I knew that no matter what it was,” Walty said, “I was gonna be ready.”
The first better-be-ready moment came on the second Sunday of the season. Susac couldn’t get out of the first inning at San Diego. Walty relieved him, allowed a two-RBI single (both runs were charged to Susac), then shut down the Toreros for the next five innings. He allowed only one unearned run, enabling Arizona to rally for a 10-9 victory after trailing 6-0.
Walty started the following Sunday against NCAA Tournament-bound Indiana and limited the Hoosiers to one run in six innings. After two so-so starts vs. USC and ASU, he has pitched as well as anyone in the country.
“Walty just does what he does,” first baseman Tommy Splaine said after the Pac-12 Tournament championship game in which Walty allowed three runs in eight innings.
Arizona right-hander Cam Walty once shut out the Wildcats while at Nevada, opening some eyes in Tucson.
What he typically does is throw a ton of strikes. Walty has surrendered only 12 walks in 86⅓ innings. He ranked fifth nationally with a 1.25 BB/9 rate entering Friday.
Walty was an elite strike thrower last year as well (1.44 BB/9), but he wasn’t as effective. He had a 5-1 record, but a late-season slump (which followed a midseason hot streak) sent his ERA soaring to 6.30.
Walty’s health might have been the biggest factor. He suffered a lat muscle injury while pitching in the Cape Code League in the summer of 2022. He was unavailable at the start of the ’23 season. He made his UA debut against GCU on March 7 and didn’t enter the rotation until April 11.
“He pitched when he was not feeling 100% last year at times,” Hale said. “This year, I think that’s one of the keys: He’s been healthy.
“He’s a strike thrower. And he’s pitched our biggest games of the year.”
Big-game pitcher
After Arizona lost the first two games of the regular-season-ending series against Oregon State by a combined score of 25-3, Hale expressed confidence going into the finale — which the Wildcats had to win to secure the No. 1 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament.
Arizona pitcher Cam Walty tosses to first to get Oregon State’s Brady Kasper and end the Beavers’ half of the first inning of their Pac-12 championship-deciding game on May 18 at Hi Corbett Field.
Why was Hale so bullish on their chances? Walty was scheduled to start.
“We know he’ll give us a shot,” Hale said after Game 2.
Walty did just that. He allowed three runs (two earned) in 8⅓ innings, positioning the Wildcats for a comeback win in the bottom of the ninth. The Pac-12 Tournament title game vs. USC was almost a carbon copy. He didn’t allow a walk in either contest, the seventh and eighth times he’s done that in 15 appearances this season.
Those performances came as no surprise to Walty’s dad, Carl. He had seen his son excel under pressure as a highly ranked and recruited two-way player out of Cosumnes High School in Elk Grove, California.
“When they say, ‘Play one pitch at a time,’ he’s really that kind of player,” Carl Walty said. “He doesn’t ride the highs and lows of the game.
“He’s used to high-leverage, pressure situations. Coaches have always had confidence in having him on the field in those type of situations. The more you’re in those situations, the less big they become.”
Carl and wife Dana got to see Cam pitch in person in those Pac-12 clinchers. They were watching a live stream when he shut out the Wildcats back in 2022.
Cam Walty might not be making what could be his last appearance at Hi Corbett if not for that first one.
“I don’t think it hurt his chances at all,” his father said.
The Star's Justin Spears and Michael Lev look back on Arizona baseball's run to the Pac-12 championship, and look ahead to the Tucson Regional this weekend at Hi Corbett Field. How does the UA stack up with GCU, Dallas Baptist and West Virginia? Plus, looking back on the life and legacy of Bill Walton, who died earlier this week at 71 years old, and exchanging funny stories about Mr. Conference of Champions.
