If you are a good hitter, you bat No. 3 in the lineup. If you are a good baseball team, you must have a productive No. 3 hitter.
So imagine the happy process when Arizona coach Jay Johnson submits his lineup for each game. Who bats third? It seems like everybody should.
Should it be outfielder Jared Oliva, who is hitting .357 with a Pac-12-leading 42 RBIs?
Or maybe outfielder Alfonso Rivas, who is hitting .415?
Or perhaps first baseman JJ Matijevic, who leads the Pac-12 in batting, .418.
And don’t forget power-hitting third baseman Nick Quintana, who hits .354.
In Arizona’s weekend series victory over Oregon, the Ducks brought two young batboys to Hi Corbett Field. It seemed like such excess. Arizona had a single batboy, Brady McNeal, yet the Wildcats hit .362 and scored 27 runs against a pitching staff that leads the Pac-12 in strikeouts and fewest walks.
McNeal might’ve been the most overworked person in the series.
Arizona led 15-4 in the seventh inning Saturday, and although Rivas was already 4 for 4 with a walk, he was itching to get back to the plate. He singled in a run.
“I like batting in the two-hole because you get more at-bats,” he said.
“I really wanted that sixth at-bat. It’s cool to go 5 for 5.”
At the midpoint of the Pac-12 season, Arizona is hitting .332. No one else in the league has a batting average of more than .294. The Wildcats are to college baseball hitting what the Golden State Warriors are to splashing 3-pointers in the NBA.
Here’s a more compelling figure: Arizona has scored 315 runs. No one else in the Pac-12 has scored as many as 190.
This just didn’t happen by accident. Johnson and assistant coach Mark Wanaka are among the leading hitting instructors in college baseball.
“You know, the Pac-12 is known as a pitcher’s league,” said Rivas, who looked a reporter in the eye and said, with emphasis, “Jay Johnson is a really good hitting coach.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, when college baseball bats were manufactured with an aluminum-based material that forever fractured the record books, Arizona had years in which its team batting average was .343 and .337. Now, with modified metal bats, the “ping!” sound has been replaced more with a “thud.”
And yet Arizona is still pinging, hitting .332. It’s not a bunch of bloopers, duck-snorts and dying quails, either. The Wildcats have 127 extra-base his. No one else in the Pac-12 has more than 93.
This is more impressive if you note that the Wildcats lost their three most-feared hitters, Cody Ramer, Zach Gibbons and Bobby Dalbec from last year’s College World Series finals team.
Johnson spotted Rivas long ago, playing for LaJolla Country Day School in the spring of 2013. Then an assistant coach for the San Diego Torreros, Johnson was unable to complete the recruiting process.
He became head coach at Nevada a few weeks later; by then Arizona coach Andy Lopez had successfully persuaded Rivas to attend the UA.
A year ago, Rivas hit .247. Now he’s at .415. It’s a remarkable transition from average to exceptional.
“The kid can rake,” said Johnson. “Some guys are put on the planet to hit.”
And Rivas might not be the most improved player in the Pac-12. That might be Oliva.
A year ago, Oliva hit .240. Now he’s hitting .357 and leads the league in RBIs. During the weekend series victory over the Ducks, Oregon coach George Horton must have been rubbing his eyes in disbelief over the emergence of Oliva as a potential all-conference player.
A quarter-century ago, Horton coached Oliva’s father, David, at Los Angeles Valley College. But he didn’t recruit Jared because, frankly, no one did. Jared was a part-time player at Valencia High School in Southern California and arrived at Arizona as a so-called preferred walk-on who redshirted in 2014.
Now, much like Rivas, he rakes.
Johnson knows it’s far too early to pack for another run to Omaha or to alert his media staff that the school’s offensive record books will soon require updating. The Wildcats have Pac-12 series remaining against ASU, Stanford, Utah, Washington and Cal.
“This isn’t 1980 any more,” said Johnson. “Everybody’s good. It’s a bloodbath every week. Everybody is invested in baseball now.”
How true.
When Arizona initiated Pac-10 baseball play in 1979, the Ducks were two years away from shutting down their baseball program. Oregon State, now ranked No. 1, played on a high school-type field and was rarely competitive. USC began a 14-year run in which it didn’t win a conference title. The northwest schools, Washington and WSU, broke off to play in the old Pac-10 North with two small Portland schools and Gonzaga.
Almost immediately, ASU and Arizona were the two leading baseball schools in the league.
That has all changed now. Defending champion Utah is expected to spend $7.5 million to build an on-campus baseball facility. When the Utes arrive at Hi Corbett Field for a Thursday-through-Saturday series, they will do so knowing that two weeks ago they beat Oregon worse than Arizona did, 13-1 and 11-5.
Let the baseball bloodbath begin.
