Maybe Arizona baseball coach Chip Hale should reset the digital scoreboard at Hi Corbett Field to have every inning read as the ninth inning — or maybe even extra innings.
The final inning has been winning time for the “Cardiac Cats,” which has eight walk-off victories this season, including game-winners in the final regular-season game at Hi Corbett Field against Oregon State and the Pac-12 Tournament championship contest against USC.
“We actually talked about that during the (Pac-12 Tournament) with the players,” said Arizona head coach Chip Hale. “’Why do we ease into games offensively?’ When you look at the pitchers we’ve faced of late, that’s part of it. There’s some really good guys we’re facing.
“It’s so interesting how it doesn’t matter what the score is in the ninth inning,” he said. “I always tell them, ‘If we can get the tying run at the plate in the last inning and get their closer, we’ve done a good job.’”
Arizona’s Andrew Cain (3) charges back to the scrum after the Wildcats scored the winning run against USC in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday night at Scottsdale Stadium.
The Pac-12 outright champs hope their late-game magic will extend into the postseason even more, when the 13th-seeded Wildcats host Grand Canyon, Dallas Baptist and West Virginia for the Tucson Regional this weekend at Hi Corbett Field. The Wildcats (36-21) face in-state opponent Grand Canyon (24-23) on Friday at 6 p.m.
Hale joined “Spears and Ali” on ESPN Tucson this week to preview the Tucson Regional. Here’s what he said:
Arizona baseball coach Chip Hale surveys the field during the Wildcats’ Pac-12 Tournament pool-play opener against Washington on May 22 at Scottsdale Stadium.
How important is it for the program to host a regional?
A: “Excited. Two or three weeks ago, it was a long shot.
“You look at our RPI and all of these different predictions, and we were never involved in hosting. Winning the Pac-12 regular-season (championship), winning the tournament this past weekend really helped us and people started to realize our strength of schedule was so good to start the year.
“Yeah, we had some losses, but they were against some quality teams. So I think (the selection committee) got it right. We deserve to host and now we have to prove it.”
Arizona’s Tommy Splaine is soaked after getting a water cooler dumped on him during his postgame TV interview following the Wildcats’ walk-off win over USC to win the 2024 Pac-12 Baseball Tournament Championship Saturday night in Scottsdale.
How was it seeing junior first baseman Tommy Splaine hit the walk-off to win the last-ever Pac-12 Tournament championship?
A: “It was special. We knew we had to win one game to get to the semifinals.
“Then having to come back and play Stanford, which is playing for their lives, and to get the walk-off was incredible — and for Tommy Splaine to do it, it was really special. He hasn’t had the offensive year he wanted to have, and he’s been a real steady guy on the team. He plays great defense for us, he’s a great leader, never shows negative emotion on the bench, and so I was really happy to see him get the game-winner.
“Maybe it leads to more. You always find those guys in the postseason, where maybe they didn’t have the greatest regular season, but then they lead you to victories in the playoffs.
“Tommy was really struggling, so we tried (freshman Andrew Cain) at first (base), but it’s just hard because it’s such an important position defensively for us. So when it came down to the championship game against Oregon State, we had to go back to Tommy, whether he was going to get hits or not. In the biggest games, Tommy seems to produce offensively.
“He works so hard in the cages, works so hard in (batting practice) to try and improve his swing and shorten it up.”
Arizona pitcher Clark Candiotti (44) sports the banana rally cap in the Wildcat dugout in the eighth inning against Oregon State on May 18 at Hi Corbett Field, May 18.
Several Wildcats have used ‘rally bananas’ in the dugout during games. Some have even taped bananas together to create hats. How did this rally tradition begin, and how many bananas do you think your team has used this season?
A: “Whew, there’s a lot of them, and I don’t really know how it came about with the players and I’ll just leave that with them — and no one will give me a real reason how that came about. When I see the bananas come out, I know something good is going to happen, so it’s obviously a good thing for us.”
Arizona has faced two of the other three teams in the Tucson Regional during the regular season. What’s the scouting report on them?
A: “They’re very good. Obviously GCU beat us two out of three (times) on the weekdays. It’ll be the first time we face their weekend starters, and they get to face ours, so that’ll be a difference in the game. They’re very talented, they’re very veteran and have some grad guys and transfers who are really good players, so we’re going to have to play our best baseball this week.
“Dallas Baptist, when we played them at the time, they were a Top 10 team and they won their league.
“West Virginia, we had here last year and they have one of the Top 10 picks in the draft.
“There’s a lot of talent and it’s interesting because all of the history the teams have against each other is going to make for some good baseball, and it’s a great time for the people of Tucson to see some great baseball players.”
The Arizona baseball team watches the NCAA selection show in the home locker room at Hi Corbett Field and finds out its seeding (13) and opponent (Grand Canyon) in the upcoming NCAA Tournament (video by Michael Lev / Arizona Daily Star)
