High leverage, low stress: Casey Hintz, Tony Pluta excel out of Arizona bullpen

Casey Hintz and Tony Pluta were expected to be Arizona’s best relief pitchers this season.

They’ve been even better than advertised so far.

Hintz has worked as a long reliever on Friday nights, posting a 2.13 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 12⅔ innings and notching a pair of victories.

Pluta has yielded just two hits in 7⅓ innings. He has yet to allow a run or a walk. He has the Wildcats’ only save.

The junior right-handers are teaming up in a way that’s new yet also familiar.

Hintz and Pluta have known each other since eighth grade, when they began playing together for the Illinois Travel Baseball Club. They attended the same high school, St. Viator, in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. Both were two-way players then — Hintz doubling as a shortstop and Pluta as a catcher. He knew better than most that Hintz’s sinker and slider would play at the college level.

“He was a little bit of a lesser version than he is now,” Pluta said Wednesday as Arizona prepared for a four-game series against Pepperdine starting Thursday at Hi Corbett Field.

“He was always dominating hitters in high school, so it was really fun to catch him.”

Pluta was the first to commit to Arizona, in November 2021. Hintz came on board the following April. Both arrived in Tucson as walk-ons. It’s something they carry with them to this day.

“Sometimes you feel that you’re being doubted by that kind of situation,” said Pluta, who no doubt was overlooked because of his height; he’s listed at 5-foot-9.

“But at the same time,” he added, “it’s just great motivation.”

Hintz was committed to a junior college before Arizona’s coaches realized he was worthy of a roster spot.

“At that time, I didn’t know if I belonged here,” Hintz said before the season. “I didn’t know if I should be here or not. But then I came in, worked hard in the fall, earned a spot and the rest is history.”

After proving themselves as sophomores, Hintz and Pluta have earned the trust of the coaching staff. They’ve been used repeatedly in high-leverage, high-pressure situations.

Hintz tossed a career-high five innings in Arizona’s 3-2 comeback win over then-No. 1 Texas A&M last Friday at Daikin Park in Houston. The Wildcats rallied to take the lead in the top of the ninth. Hintz allowed two hits with one out, got some help from his defense, then struck out top prospect Jace LaViolette to end the game.

“That performance against Texas A&M really helped us realize that we can do this,” Pluta said. “We were on that win streak, so we were getting our confidence back. And then just having a win like that really set the tone that, yeah, we’re back, we’re good, don’t worry.”

The next day, Pluta entered in the bottom of the ninth with runners on first and second, no outs and Arizona clinging to a 6-5 lead over Mississippi State. After a sacrifice bunt, Pluta fielded a comebacker to initiate a rundown between home and third. He got the final out on a flyout.

Pluta again stranded two runners in the ninth inning of Sunday’s loss to Tennessee.

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“It’s breath regulation. It’s just calming yourself down, slowing the game down,” said Pluta, who has walked only three batters in 43⅔ career innings. “And at the end of the day, you gotta remember that we’re just playing a game. Obviously it’s more than that to me. It’s more than that to everybody else. But just remember that this is something you love and have some passion for it.”

Pluta and Hintz are two of the Wildcats’ most clutch players and among their smartest. Pluta is majoring in aerospace engineering and has a 3.91 GPA.

“It’s tough. I don’t have a whole lot of free time,” Pluta said. “I go to class all day, come to the field all afternoon and then do my homework all night.

“It’s just time management and making sure that I sleep and eat and get all my stuff done.”

Hintz is majoring in business management. He has a 3.55 GPA.

“They’re tough kids and extremely intelligent in the classroom,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “They do really well off the field, and a lot of that translates ... No problems on campus, no problems out here.”

Popup problems

The only runs Hintz allowed against Texas A&M could have been prevented.

Hintz had a chance for a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fifth, but he overran a foul pop hit near third base. It was Hintz’s play to make because the infield was shifted for the left-handed-hitting LaViolette. Hintz heard third baseman Mathis Meurant approaching and let the ball drop.

Hintz then hit LaViolette with a pitch before allowing a two-run homer.

Even if he hadn’t yielded to Meurant, Hintz might have missed the ball anyway.

“In a major-league stadium, the one thing that’s hard to work on is the ball comes back a lot harder because of the third deck,” Hale said. “It’s going to actually work back towards the field. We tried to explain it to them, but until you encounter that ... it’s almost like a catcher going straight back. He can’t overcharge it.

“We haven’t been real good on the third base side on popups for a couple years. We work on it. We hit them. We shoot them up in the machine. ... We can’t give really good teams extra outs.”

Inside pitch

– Arizona will treat the first game of the Pepperdine series like a midweek game. Right-hander Michael Hilker Jr. will start. The usual starting rotation will follow him Friday-Sunday: righties Collin McKinney, Owen Kramkowski and Smith Bailey.

– Kramkowski, a product of Walden Grove High, has found a groove after a rough initial outing. Kramkowski has allowed five earned runs in 11 innings in his past two starts. He struck out a career-high eight batters vs. Mississippi State last Saturday and has yet to issue a walk in 11⅔ innings. “We saw it all fall. We saw it all preseason. He was fantastic,” Hale said. “The first outing, obviously, was a dud. He threw the ball down the middle, and they hit it. He’s been more in his margins, he’s throwing all his pitches for strikes and he’s making them work their way on.”

– Arizona’s lone loss during its four-game trip to Houston came Sunday against defending national champion Tennessee, which rose from No. 3 to No. 2 in D1Baseball’s Top 25. The Volunteers are Baseball America’s No. 1 team. “When we got done playing them, the message was, ‘That’s what it looks like. That’s what an Omaha team looks like,’” Hale said. “They were really good at capitalizing on bad pitches. Any extra outs we gave them, they took advantage of it.”

– Rain is in the forecast for Friday. It’s expected to subside before the scheduled first pitch at 6 p.m. If the game is unable to be played, Arizona and Pepperdine would play a doubleheader on Saturday.