Arizona coach Chip Hale talks with the home plate ump between innings of the Wildcatsβ game against Grand Canyon in the Tucson Regional on Friday. Arizona lost both of its games in the NCAA Tournament but exceeded preseason expectations.
Pitching coach Kevin Vance, shown during Arizonaβs March 30 game vs. UCLA, transformed the Wildcatsβ staff during his first year on the job. Keeping him on board is paramount.
Arizona senior starter Cam Walty throws against Dallas Baptist in the early innings of their NCAA Tournament elimination game Saturday, June 1, at Hi Corbett Field.
Arizona freshman outfielder Easton Breyfogle knocks a leadoff single against Dallas Baptist in the fifth inning of their elimination game in the Tucson Regional on Saturday at Hi Corbett Field.
Arizona baseball coach Chip Hale speaks June 1, 2024, after the Wildcats' 7-0 loss to Dallas Baptist in the Tucson Regional of the NCAA Tournament on his excitement for the 2025 season and the underclassmen who are returning. (Video courtesy Arizona Athletics)
If I had told you on Feb. 7, 2024, that the Arizona baseball team would host an NCAA regional β but would go two-and-out β youβd have taken it in a heartbeat.
That was the day the Pac-12 preseason coaches poll was released. They didnβt think very much of your Wildcats, picking them to finish ninth among the 11 baseball-playing schools.
The poll, for whatever it was worth, suggested that Arizona would barely make the Pac-12 Tournament, let alone the NCAA Tournament.
Even Chip Hale wasnβt sure what to expect from his team, which had many new faces and placed countless players into new roles. Having lost Chase Davis, Kiko Romero, Nik McClaughry, Tony Bullard and Mac Bingham to pro ball or the transfer portal, Arizona seemed destined for a rebuilding year. A 10-13 start β albeit against a brutal slate of NCAA-bound opponents, mostly on the road β only affirmed that notion.
Fast-forward to late May. Led by a vastly improved pitching staff, the Wildcats proved that those preseason expectations were misguided at best. They blew them away. Arizona won the Pac-12 regular-season title with a 20-10 record β just the third time the Wildcats have won 20-plus conference games since the 30-game format was introduced in 2012. The other two times, in β12 and β21, Arizona advanced to the College World Series.
Add in a Pac-12 Tournament title, and itβs a wholly different discussion. Thanks to their stellar play, the Wildcats raised expectations tenfold. Thatβs why the outcome of the Tucson Regional β losses to Grand Canyon and Dallas Baptist in which Arizona didnβt do anything particularly well β felt so disappointing.
Iβm not going to sugarcoat any of that. The Wildcats didnβt play up to the standard they had set during the season. If nothing else, they were almost always a tough out β a team that would battle until the last at-bat. For whatever reason, that team never appeared during the regional.
It doesnβt mean that the season overall wasnβt a success. Because it unequivocally was.
With the least talented roster heβs had (in my opinion), Hale did his best coaching job β as both a program and dugout leader. In critical ways, Arizona took a big step in the right direction.
It began with Haleβs best move of the 2023 offseason β hiring Kevin Vance as pitching coach. With his modern approach β expertly blending analytics and mental toughness β Vance transformed a weakness into a strength.
That, in turn, helped improve the clubhouse culture. Instead of us (the hitters) vs. them (the pitchers), it became all for one and one for all.
The lingering question is how to take the next step β how to go from making an NCAA regional to winning one.
Before I get into that, itβs worth noting that Arizona made the tournament for a fourth straight year β something that had never been done in the modern history of the program. I realize that the format has changed, the field has expanded, etc. But itβs not nothing. Three of those appearances came on Haleβs watch.
Jerry Kindall, Andy Lopez and Jay Johnson never led their teams to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments. But two of the three won the CWS, and the other got there twice in five tries. Thatβs the overarching expectation for Arizona baseball. Thatβs the goal. Thatβs how Hale can win over the doubters.
Getting back to Omaha will require further advancement in areas where the Wildcats already have made strides. Some changes could be in order as well.
Arizona canβt expect to make the CWS if its pitching regresses. So retaining Vance is paramount.
I havenβt so much as heard a rumor about Vance going elsewhere. Although he played college ball on the East Coast, heβs a West Coast guy (San Diego). He fit in seamlessly at Arizona, and the program has provided him the funding and space to build a pitching lab inside the Terry Francona Hitting Center.
But when you do your job as well as Vance did β the Wildcatsβ ERA dropped from 5.97 to 4.46 with mostly the same arms β other programs will take notice. If an SEC school were to lure Vance away with a financial package Arizona couldnβt match, it wouldnβt come as a surprise. Hopefully Hale and the UA will do right by Vance and incentivize him to stay.
The Wildcats will need to rebuild their starting rotation with Clark Candiotti and Cam Walty running out of eligibility and Jackson Kent more likely than not to be drafted. Theyβll have to find at least one veteran starter in the transfer portal, maybe two. Vance and his right-hand man, John DeRouin, know exactly what theyβre looking for in terms of makeup and metrics, all the more reason to make sure they stick around.
The offense β which was never great, at least by recent UA standards β should improve organically. Most of the position players who occupied significant roles or are projected to next season β Mason White, Brendan Summerhill, Maddox Mihalakis, Adonys Guzman, Easton Breyfogle, Andrew Cain, TJ Adams β were sophomores or freshmen in 2024. They all should get better with more high-level at-bats.
Arizona finished the season with a .278 batting average β the first time the Wildcats have been below .280 since 1994. Aside from White, the β24 squad didnβt make up for it by hitting the ball over the wall. Arizonaβs 57 home runs were 41 fewer than last year and marked its lowest total in a full season since 2018. The Wildcats didnβt hit a homer in any of their last eight games at Hi Corbett Field.
If the β24 team had the β23 teamβs hitting β or the β23 team had the β24 teamβs pitching β youβre talking about a national-title contender. When the two are in sync, it makes for a magical season. Again, thatβs the goal.
Something else was missing during the Tucson Regional, and itβs much harder to quantify. Similar to the first two games of the Oregon State series, the Wildcats seemed oddly flat. Maybe itβs because all those games started unfavorably, with Arizona facing early multiple-run deficits. Maybe itβs something deeper.
Hale said he was thinking during the DBU loss about ways he might prepare his team differently for future NCAA Tournament games. Hereβs an idea: Add a graduate or undergraduate assistant to change the vibe a bit.
Hale, Vance and assistant coaches Trip Couch and Toby DeMello are generally laid-back guys. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that Arizona won a pair of games in the Coral Gables Regional in 2022 with fiery Brian Anderson also on staff. Perhaps not.
Regardless of what changes are coming to college sports, these players are not professionals. Theyβre young and emotional. That can be a detriment at times. It also might be something thatβs worth tapping into.
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Photos: Arizona falls to Dallas Baptist 7-0, game two of the NCAA Regionals
Photos: Arizona falls to GCU in Wildcats' NCAA regional opener
Photos: Arizona walks off USC 4-3 for the last Pac 12 baseball tournament championship
Photos: Arizona comes from behind with two in the bottom of the ninth to beat Oregon State and take the Pac 12 championship
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