Arizona’s Garen Caulfield (1) goes for the flying chest-bump as the Wildcats celebrate their 4-3, come-from-behind, walk-off win over Oregon State for the Pac-12 regular-season championship on May 18 at Hi Corbett Field.

 Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

This is not the most talented Arizona baseball team I’ve covered since joining the beat in 2016. Not even close.

But it’s the most resilient. The most determined. The pluckiest.

Michael Lev is a senior writer/columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson.com and The Wildcaster.

This UA squad has a true never-say-die spirit to it. And let’s admit it: It was tempting to bury these Wildcats on more than one occasion this season — even as recently as this past weekend.

Yet here they are, regular-season Pac-12 champions after Saturday night’s 4-3 walk-off thriller against Oregon State at Hi Corbett Field — a fitting finale if there ever was one.

Just like in 2016, when they came within a hit of winning the College World Series, these Cats were picked to finish ninth in the preseason Pac-12 coaches poll. Unlike so many teams that make the claim, nobody believed in the 2024 Arizona Wildcats.

Arizona's Brendan Summerhill (in red) and the Wildcats show off their conference championship trophy to the home crowd after knocking off Oregon State on Summerhill’s bottom-of-the-ninth, two-RBI double in the final Pac-12 event of any kind to be held in Tucson on May 18.

Actually, that’s not true: They believed in themselves.

“We always knew what we had here,” said sophomore outfielder Brendan Summerhill, who drove in the tying and winning runs with a blistering two-RBI double to right-center in the bottom of the ninth — securing Arizona’s seventh walk-off victory this season.

“Maybe we don't have the names that everyone else has had. But I really think this is a team. As we just showed right there. It is a team effort every single day. We win as a team, lose as a team. I think that's the most important thing.”

Chip Hale and multiple players have lauded the chemistry this team seems to have. It’s a difficult thing to quantify. Except maybe in this way: Arizona won 20 conference games for only the third time since 1990. The others to do it: The 2021 and 2012 squads. The former reached the CWS and had 12 future MLB Draft picks. The latter won the whole thing.

This team doesn’t have that kind of star power. But maybe that’s a good thing.

In discussing the clubhouse dynamic — something he made a concerted effort to improve — Hale said factions had formed the previous two seasons. It's unclear whether that happened intentionally or organically. When one part of the team (hitting) is so much better than another (pitching), it’s only natural for some resentment to bubble beneath the surface.

“They're a very together group,” Hale said of the ’24 club. “There's some goofiness that goes on on the bench, and guys have fun. In the past, it hasn't been that way, to be frank.

“That was one of our goals coming in. ... We wanted the pitchers and the hitters to be one group. We tried with practice plans and different things that we did to get them more together because, in the past, obviously our hitting has been great, we struggled on the mound and there were guys frustrated with each other.

“This year, it's been just a group, whether it's good pitching that night, good hitting, bad pitching … it didn't matter. They're gonna stick together. And whether it's the first inning or the ninth inning, these guys are into it. I think that's the biggest difference and why we've been so successful.”

Arizona coach Chip Hale injected his team with confidence before Saturday’s conference-clinching victory by reminding them of how far they had come since the start of the season.

It was working splendidly until Oregon State landed in Tucson. Led by superstar Travis Bazzana — who, I swear, was never not on base — the Beavers bludgeoned the Wildcats in the first two games. Fortunately, baseball series aren’t decided by cumulative runs.

Those were “lose as a team” efforts to the nth degree. Arizona didn’t do anything well. They appeared to be outclassed, maybe even a little intimidated by a top-10 team that came to the “Juice Box” and took the Wildcats’ Capri Suns.

Those lackluster performances brought the doubters out of hibernation. They re-emerged on social media after being mostly silent while Arizona was defying expectations for a month and a half.

Never mind that, just a few innings into Game 1, the Wildcats had lost a third outfielder to injury. By the end of Game 2, they had a relief pitcher (Casey Hintz) in center field and a first baseman (Tommy Splaine) on the mound. College baseball doesn’t have a farm system. You can’t just call somebody up.

Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana dives back into second under a leaping Arizona first baseman Andrew Cain after tripping rounding the bag and having to settle for a double in the third inning of their series-opening Pac-12 matchup Thursday at Hi Corbett Field.

It is Hale’s responsibility to get the players ready, and they certainly seemed out of sorts Friday. His teams don’t boot routine grounders. Yet from the jump that night, the Wildcats couldn’t make a play. Weren’t the Beavers the ones who were supposed to struggle on the unforgiving desert dirt?

Arizona’s offensive issues were a bit more understandable. No Emilio Corona, no Easton Breyfogle, no TJ Adams. Just like that, the depth that had made the lineup dangerous, or at least viable, was gone.

Hale, who never gets credit from a certain segment of the fanbase, then did something really smart before Saturday’s game: He emboldened his team.

The Wildcats needed an injection of confidence, and Hale provided it by reminding them of where they were not too long ago.

Said Hale: “We had a long talk today about, ‘Look where we’re at. Look where we were when the preseason ended. They (the Beavers) were (No.) 3 or 4 in the country, and we were who knows what. We were struggling.’

Arizona pitcher Cam Walty tosses to first to get Oregon State’s Brady Kasper and end the Beavers’ half of the first inning of their Pac-12 championship-deciding game on May 18 at Hi Corbett Field.

“If you had said we’re going to be able to play Oregon State on the last night of the season to win the regular season, the last Pac-12 game, it’s pretty cool. So I think that loosened them up a little bit.”

Saturday starter Cam Walty — who pitched an absolute gem of a game — summed up Hale’s pregame message as follows:

“He praised the seniors; this could be some guys’ last games. And just know that we put ourselves in this spot. We deserve to be here. So it was just about going out and playing with house money.”

Saturday began and ended with on-field celebrations. Walty couldn’t participate in Senior Night, though, because he was still warming up for his start. His parents, Carl and Dana, posed with his framed jersey without him.

The afterparty lasted well into the night. The game ended at 8:38 p.m. Players and their families lingered on the field past 9:30. Walty and his parents were among the revelers.

“For them to fly all the way down here and to see that it's just ... I couldn't have scripted it any better,” he said. “It's amazing.”

Arizona sophomore outfielder Brendan Summerhill discusses his two-RBI, walk-off double that gave the Wildcats a 4-3 victory over Oregon State and locked up the Pac-12 regular-season championship for the UA (video by Michael Lev / Arizona Daily Star)

Trailing 3-2 in the ninth inning of their last-ever Pac-12 baseball game, the Arizona's Brendan Summerhill hit a two-run RBI double to walk-off the Wildcats not just to a win, but also the conference's 2024 regular-season championship. (Courtesy Pac-12 Networks)

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Contact sports reporter/columnist Michael Lev at mlev@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @michaeljlev