Arizona sophomore Brendan Summerhill began the season as a leadoff-hitting left fielder. He’s now a middle-of-the-order center fielder.
No matter what role he’s been asked to take on, Summerhill has attacked it and thrived.
The second-year player from Chicago leads the Wildcats in batting average (.350), hits (49), doubles (12) and runs scored (36). He’s tied for first in triples (five) and ranks second behind Mason White in RBIs (38).
In almost every facet, Summerhill is having the breakout season Chip Hale and the UA staff envisioned.
“It’s been fantastic,” said Hale, whose 21st-ranked Wildcats host Washington State Friday-Sunday at Hi Corbett Field. “We knew when we recruited him that he was going to be a high-level player. Hits lefties, hits righties.”
Only two UA regulars are batting over .300 against left- and right-handed pitchers: catcher Adonys Guzman and Summerhill.
While most other Wildcats have struggled against lefties, Guzman is hitting .375 (9 of 24) and Summerhill is hitting .341 (14 of 41). One notable difference between them: Summerhill is a left-handed batter.
Arizona sophomore outfielder Brendan Summerhill leads the Wildcats in batting average (.350), hits (49), doubles (12) and runs scored (36).
The secret to his success? Summerhill doesn’t change his approach. Whether he’s batting leadoff (14 times) or cleanup (13), facing a lefty or a righty, Summerhill is selective and disciplined. He and Guzman are also the only two regulars with more walks than strikeouts.
“I just want to hit something hard, get my pitch instead of swinging at their pitches,” Summerhill said. “I know how lefties are probably going to attack me, with fastballs and sliders. So if I get the fastball, can’t miss it — and try to lay off the slider.”
A potential MLB draftee in 2022 out of Chicago’s Whitney Young High School, Summerhill chose to attend Arizona and played a part-time role as a freshman. Summerhill appeared in 22 games, including 18 starts, and showed he could get on base; his .419 on-base percentage was just two ticks below this year’s .421 mark. Summerhill has reached base via a hit or walk in 33 of 34 games this season.
Summerhill is one of the Wildcats’ fastest players, but baserunning is an area where he still has room to improve. His decision-making on the basepaths has been questionable at times — earning the nickname “Summerthrill” from members of the media.
Arizona's Brendan Summerhill, right, shown vs. ASU on March 16, has had a breakout sophomore season — with the exception of baserunning, where he's still learning when to be aggressive and when not to.
Summerhill has six stolen bases but has been caught five times — matching the total for the rest of the team.
“The missing link with Brendan right now is just the baserunning part,” Hale said. “He should be up in the 15-20 range of stolen bases. He’s a really elite runner. So that’s a great thing for us as coaches, to keep developing him.”
Usually, it’s Summerhill’s derring-do that gets him in trouble; the Alabama game on March 2, a 7-6 defeat, ended with Summerhill being thrown out on an attempted steal of home. Summerhill left Tuesday’s 5-4 loss at Grand Canyon upset with himself for not being aggressive enough.
Summerhill was on first base with one out in the ninth inning after singling to drive in Garen Caulfield and cut Arizona’s deficit to one run. Guzman then hit a double down the right-field line.
Third base coach Toby DeMello held Summerhill, not knowing that GCU had botched the relay.
“After I rounded third and picked up the ball and saw it was basically in our on-deck circle, that’s when I was like, ‘Dang, I could have gone,’ ” Summerhill said. “But running from first to third, my back was to the play the whole time. So I didn’t see (it). I didn’t see all that happened. And obviously in real time it happens so fast.”
Arizona Brendan Summerhill, shown vs. ASU on March 16, began the season as the Wildcats' starting left fielder before moving to center.
Hale’s coaching point on that particular play: Just because you get the stop sign, that doesn’t mean the play is over. It’s a lesson he hopes every Wildcat will learn.
“That’s what we’ve tried to work on with this group: Once a coach holds, it doesn’t mean you’re done,” Hale said. “You take a good turn, and you look at where the ball is. And then if you make the decision (that) you can go, we’re OK with it.”
Summerhill said previous missteps weren’t in the back of his mind as he rounded the bases. He was thinking “four” all the way. And if a similar situation should arise in the future, he won’t err on the side of caution.
The coaches have told Summerhill to continue to “be aggressive,” he said. “Be aggressive at the plate, be aggressive in the outfield, be aggressive on the bases.”
Struggles vs. lefties
Summerhill and Guzman are outliers when it comes to hitting left-handed pitching.
As a team, the Wildcats are batting .247 against lefties and .293 against righties. Excluding Summerhill and Guzman, Arizona’s average against left-handers drops to .216.
Arizona outfielder Emilio Corona hit significantly better against righties (.370) than lefties (.212) last season despite being a right-handed batter.
“It’s interesting,” Hale said. “We just were talking about it in my office. A lot of our hitters, if you look at their statistics, even last year, are reverse (split) guys, where they should be hitting lefties because they’re right-handed hitters — but they actually hit righties better.”
Two examples: First baseman Tommy Splaine, a right-handed hitter, is batting .263 against righties and .192 against lefties. Last year, right fielder Emilio Corona, also a right-handed batter, hit .370 against righties and .212 against lefties.
Hale said most of the metrics for the lefties Arizona has faced “are not out of this world.” Louisiana Tech’s Luke Nichols was an exception. He has allowed only six extra-base hits in 42⅓ innings and limited the Wildcats to three singles and a double in 6⅓ scoreless frames last Saturday.
Neither of the Cougars’ projected starters this weekend is a left-hander. (The Sunday starter is TBD.)
“But … even the relievers, we need to do a better job,” Hale said. “Obviously it starts with us. We need to give them a better game plan.”
Inside pitch
WSU (18-17, 7-11 Pac-12) defeated Grand Canyon 6-4 on Wednesday in Phoenix. The Cougars had lost eight of their previous nine games.
Hale is hopeful that third baseman Richie Morales will be able to return this weekend. Morales missed the GCU game after getting hit in the eye by a bad-hop grounder during pregame infield practice. “There’s no broken bones,” Hale said. “There’s no concussion. So we just need to get the swelling out. It does not look very good right now, to be frank with you; it looks ugly. But he says he’s OK. The trainers think that he’s going to be OK.”
Arizona (21-14, 10-5) takes a seven-game conference winning streak into the weekend. That’s one shy of the school record in the Pac-10/12 era set five previous times: 2021, 2019, 2007, 1989 and 1985.
The UA is a No. 2 seed in the latest NCAA Tournament projections from D1Baseball.com and Baseball America. D1 has the Wildcats in Lexington with No. 4 national seed Kentucky; BA has them in Chapel Hill with No. 7 overall seed North Carolina.
