Current and former Arizona Wildcats are making news. We’ve got views.
News: The UA baseball team takes two of three at Utah, eliminating the Utes from the Pac-12 title chase.
Michael Lev is a senior writer/columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson.com and The Wildcaster.
Views: It was the first time this season that Arizona lost the first game of a series and came back to win it. The final two games featured a blend of typical 2024 UA baseball and something we haven’t seen much this year.
The Wildcats’ pitching continued to stand out. UA hurlers walked only one batter in each of those wins. Starting with Clark Candiotti’s shutout of Stanford on May 4, Arizona has yielded only five bases on balls in six games. The Wildcats continue to lead the nation in BB/9 rate (2.41).
Arizona had not been a prolific home-run-hitting team before this past week, averaging .91 homers per game. The Wildcats then hit three home runs at ASU to kick off a 10-homer week.
Arizona coach Chip Hale has his team in position to win the Pac-12 regular-season title. The Wildcats hold a 1.5-game lead over Oregon State entering their series Thursday-Sunday at Hi Corbett Field.
Chip Hale recently suggested that the offense would spike with the weather beginning to warm. Phoenix Municipal Stadium is a homer haven, and playing at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City (elevation 4,265 feet) is a bit like playing at Coors Field.
But looking at who hit the homers might reveal the real reason behind the surge. Mason White had three, and that’s to be expected. Three more came off the bat of freshman Andrew Cain, who’s about to take over at first base if he hasn’t already. Three second-year players — TJ Adams, Maddox Mihalakis and Brendan Summerhill — also went yard. The kids are starting to figure it out.
One final note on the series: Hale got the better of counterpart Gary Henderson. Utah has the best closer in the Pac-12 in Micah Ashman. Henderson never used him, presumably because the Utes were never in a traditional save situation. There were plenty of high-leverage opportunities, though. You can’t leave your best guy in the ’pen.
Now Hale squares off against Oregon State’s Mitch Canham to decide the final Pac-12 title race in any sport. Can’t wait.
News: The UA softball team returns to the NCAA Tournament as a 2-seed in the Fayetteville Regional.
Views: What was the difference between Arizona playing there and here this weekend? Probably two come-from-ahead losses against UCLA.
On April 28, the Wildcats squandered a 7-0 lead against the Bruins. In the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals Friday, Arizona surrendered a 4-0 advantage.
In both instances, the UA held those leads entering the bottom of the fifth inning. Both times, you could argue that Caitlin Lowe and Christian Conrad waited too long to make pitching changes.
We’ve mentioned it before in this space, but Arizona doesn’t have a dominant pitcher in the circle. The coaching staff has used a mix-and-match approach, at times even bringing starters back into games. If you don’t get the mix just right, it can blow up on you.
Arizona pitcher Aissa Silva celebrates after striking out Grand Canyon’s Ramsay Lopez with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, clinching the Wildcats' 3-2 win in their game at Hillenbrand Stadium on April 30.
Based on RPI, Arizona (No. 21) should have no trouble against Villanova (84) or Southeast Missouri State (95). The Wildcats split a pair of games against Arkansas (14) earlier this season, both by scores of 3-2.
But those games were at Hillenbrand Stadium. These will be in SEC country.
The Razorbacks have two starters (Robyn Herron, Morgan Leinstock) with ERAs under 2.00. Arizona’s best pitcher, Aissa Silva, is at 3.21. In Pac-12 games, that figure was 4.45.
As a team, the Wildcats’ 3.74 ERA ranks eighth out of nine Pac-12 teams. They also ranked eighth, at 5.39, in regular-season conference games.
If it feels like no lead is safe, well, see Arizona vs. UCLA. The Wildcats’ potent offense can’t score enough runs.
News: The UA men’s tennis team falls in the Sweet 16 at Columbia.
Arizona junior Casper Christensen braces for his return in the opening round of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament on May 3 against Boise State.
Views: Talk about heartbreak. The last two postseason exits for Clancy Shields’ ascending program have been excruciating.
No. 8 seed Columbia won the doubles point against No. 9 seed Arizona on Saturday by the thinnest of margins. Each side won a match via tiebreaker; the Lions won the other 7-5.
Arizona took three of the first five singles matches, with two requiring three sets. It came down to Casper Christensen vs. Hugo Hashimoto on Court 5. Another three-setter. Hashimoto won it 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
A year ago, Arizona lost to No. 3 seed Ohio State in Columbus. The final tally was 4-2, but two singles wins for the Buckeyes required three sets. The unfinished match was tied 6-6 in the third when OSU clinched it.
What’s the next step for Shields’ squad? Securing a top-eight seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Assuming a regional triumph, that would ensure a Sweet 16 matchup in the dry heat of Tucson. Advantage, Wildcats.
One never truly knows what the future holds in the transfer-portal era, but Arizona is clearly trending in that direction. The Wildcats have gone from making the NCAA Tournament to hosting the first two rounds. They were seeded 14th in 2023, ninth this year.
Getting over the hump is hard. But if anyone can lead that final push, it’s Shields. He’s That Guy.
News: The UA football team has only one verbal commitment in the class of 2025.
Views: Every other school in the Big 12 has at least three. ASU has 13. But this isn’t cause for alarm.
When Brent Brennan’s predecessor, Jedd Fisch, was putting together the vaunted class of ’22, Arizona had five commitments through May. Fisch was hired Dec. 23, 2020, so he had a three-week head start on Brennan (hired Jan. 16, 2024).
Arizona added seven players before the start of the ’21 season and 10 from December on.
Arizona coach Brent Brennan (in red hoodie) hasn't secured many commitments for the class of 2025 as of yet, but he and his staff have beefed up both lines via the transfer portal.
Don’t expect a late surge like that again with the early signing period having moved up; the three-day window starts Dec. 4 this year. But it’s easy to envision a lot of action over the next few months.
Camp season is on the horizon, and Brennan’s staff has been traveling all over the country scouting players and handing out offers. It’s only a matter of time before players start committing.
It’s also worth noting that Brennan and his staff have done work in the transfer portal. Besides hanging on to star players such as Tacario Davis, the staff has gotten seven transfer commits who will be arriving on campus soon.
The group isn’t particularly flashy — no four- or five-star-rated players — but makes up for it with substance: Four of the seven players are offensive or defensive linemen. Those are the hardest players to find — yet also the most important players in building a roster. Brennan knows what he’s doing.
