NCAA Tucson Regional Notebook: Hi Corbett history, GCU carries AZ torch to end, all-region teams, more

While Grand Canyon ultimately bowed out of the 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament late Sunday in Tucson with a 10-6 loss to West Virginia at Hi Corbett Field, the Antelopes carried the flag for the Grand Canyon State after the 2024 seasons ended for both Arizona and ASU.

UA and ASU have combined to win nine national championships while reaching Omaha, Nebraska, and the Men’s College World Series a combined 40 times; but the Sun Devils missed the tournament entirely in 2024 — the third straight year ASU failed to earn a bid to regional play — and the Wildcats were eliminated after a pair of regional losses on their home field.

GCU upset No. 13 national seed Arizona 9-4 to win the program’s first NCAA Division I tournament game on Friday; the fourth seed in the regional, Grand Canyon lost to West Virginia Saturday, before beat Dallas Baptist 12-10 Sunday to advance to the late Sunday regional championship for the first time.

“I think that just to be one of the last 32 was something that was incredible,” GCU coach Gregg Wallis said Sunday. “We would have loved to have gone on to a Super Regional but to make it to a regional championship round was a special feeling. So I think that’s who we were; I think that’s who our program is — a top-40 type of program — and to be one of the last 32 was incredible.”

It’s the third regional appearance for GCU, including the 2021 Tucson Regional that was won by Arizona, also in Tucson.

Grand Canyon is 30-70 against Arizona but went 3-1 against the UA this year and 7-6 against the Wildcats in the last four years. The Lopes won three games in a row against Arizona for the first time in the series’ 57-year history.

After going 1-1 against ASU this year, GCU is 26-93-1 all-time against the Sun Devils.

Grand Canyon’s state

One of the most telling parts of Grand Canyon’s rise: its roster is chock full of Arizona-based talent. The Antelopes featured more than 20 players who either played high school or college ball in Arizona, including infielder Troy Sanders of Tucson, by way of Catalina Foothills High School.

Sanders played in 20 games for the Lopes as a true freshman this year, starting two. He hit .333 with a .787 OPS with six RBIs and seven runs.

GCU’s 2024 signing class includes as many as 10 players from Arizona, including another Tucson product: Salpointe Catholic outfielder Shawn Barros.

Hi Corbett history

The Tucson Regional was historic in other ways.

Arizona’s future Big 12 counterpart, West Virginia, won to reach the first Super Regional in Mountaineer program history.

“For you guys that don’t know much about West Virginia and our program, winning here means a lot to a lot of people because we’re not blessed with pro teams in our state — NHL, NBA, Major League Baseball,” WVU head coach Randy Mazey said. “It’s us and Marshall are the only two Division I schools and we probably capture 90% of the fans in our state so to win a regional like this, we represent a ton of people, not just our university and our community but 1.8 million in the state of West Virginia that I know are really, really proud of all these guys and what they accomplished.”

Since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999, only five times have the championship games for regionals seen No. 3 and No. 4 seeds go against each other.

That happened twice this year — in Tucson and in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where No. 3 Kansas State defeated No. 4 Southeast Missouri State to advance to a Super Regional.

Past occurrences prior to 2024:

In 2002, third-seeded Arkansas topped fourth-seeded Oral Roberts at the Wichita (Kansas) Regional.

In 2011, at the Fort Worth (Texas) Regional, No. 3 seed Dallas Baptist edged Oral Roberts.

And in 2021, fourth-seeded South Florida beat No. 3 seed South Alabama in the Gainesville (Florida) Regional.

It’s the first time since 1992 that UA didn’t win a regional it hosted in Tucson. That year, No. 3 seed Pepperdine won it. Top seeded Arizona lost to No. 6 seed Washington, then fourth-seeded Hawaii to bow out of play. Also of note, that 1992 Pepperdine team, which went on to win that year’s national championship, was coached by Andy Lopez, who would eventually win another national title in 2012 while the head coach at Arizona.

Since 1999, regional No. 3 seeds have reached the CWS 8.3% of the time, winning two national championships. The last three seed to win it all was Ole Miss in 2022, which included a 22-6 win over Arizona in the Coral Gables (Florida) Regional championship game.

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With some regional play continuing Monday, the other two Pac-12 teams in the 2024 NCAA Tournament were unbeaten at 3-0, while the Big 12 has a pair of 3-0 sides.

No. 3 seed Oregon went 3-0 in the Santa Barbara (California) Regional while No. 15 national seed Oregon State, the top seed at their home Corvallis (Oregon) Regional, won a suspended game Monday over UC Irvine to advance also at 3-0.

The Pac-12 has the most national championships in baseball (18) and most wins all-time in the NCAA tournament (274).

In addition to West Virginia, the 2024-25 Big 12, which Arizona, ASU and others will join this summer, had three other NCAA tournament teams:

Kansas State went 3-0 in the Fayetteville Regional.

Oklahoma State went 2-2 in the Stillwater (Oklahoma) Regional, falling in Monday’s finale 4-2 to Florida.

Central Florida went 2-2 in the Tallahassee (Florida) Regional.

The lame duck Big 12 teams are 4-3 in the regionals. No. 9 national seed Oklahoma is 3-1 in the Normal (Oklahoma) Regional and Texas went 1-2 in the Bryan-College Station (Texas) Regional. Both are heading to the SEC this summer.

As for Tucson Regional champion West Virginia, the Mountaineers woke up Monday still not sure where they’ll be next. In the Chapel Hill (North Carolina) Regional, defending national champion LSU defeated No. 4 national seed North Carolina 8-4 Sunday to force a winner-take-all game Monday afternoon that was ongoing as the Star went to press.

West Virginia will be playing at the winner of the Chapel Hill Regional, and it’s all but guaranteed the Mountaineers will again be on the road.

Former UA head coach Jay Johnson leads LSU while Tigers senior outfielder Mac Bingham was an All Pac-12 performer playing at the UA until last season.

In the Fayetteville Regional, No. 4 seed SEMO eliminated No. 5 national seed Arkansas on Sunday, getting some revenge for the Southeast Missouri softball team, who the Razorbacks beat 3-2 in the softball Fayetteville Regional barely two weeks ago.

Arizona ultimately won that softball Fayetteville Regional, going 3-0.

The SEC had a conference record 11 teams in the tournament and hosting duties for five regionals. Through mid-Monday, they had a 22-12 record.

All-Tucson Team

With Arizona bowing out of the Hi Corbett-hosted regional after just two games, no Wildcats were named to the 11-player Tucson Regional “All-Tournament” Team.

West Virginia pitcher Derek Clark was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player for his complete game, four-hit performance on the mound in WVU’s regional-opening win over Dallas Baptist Friday. Because voting took place near the end — but not after — Sunday’s WVU win over GCU, Clark was already named the MOP before he took the ball a final time to close out Sunday’s Super Regional-clinching victory for the Mountaineers. Coming in with one out in the ninth Sunday, Clark gave up a single before striking out two to close out the win over the Antelopes.

The All Regional selections, by school:

West Virginia: C Logan Sauve, 3B Reed Chumley, P Tyler Switalski, P Derek Clark (MOP)

Grand Canyon: 2B Dustin Crenchsaw, SS Emilio Barreras, OF Cade Verdusco, OF Tyler Wilson, OF Eddy Pelc

Dallas Baptist: 1B Chayton Krauss, DH Tommy Poole