EUGENE, Ore. — Chip Hale has done so many good things since becoming the head coach of Arizona baseball.
Hale has led his team to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Jay Johnson never did that. Andy Lopez never did that. Jerry Kindall never did that.
Michael Lev is a senior writer/columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson.com and The Wildcaster.
Hale has created a positive culture within the program. Players respect him. Families adore him.
Hale has recruited better than expected, thanks in large part to the staff he has assembled. He has raised funds to upgrade the clubhouse and build a pitching lab at Hi Corbett Field. He has kept the Wildcats competitive amid the chaos of the transfer portal and the costliness of NIL.
Hale has proved to be an effective college baseball coach and an admirable ambassador for his alma mater.
But there’s one thing he has yet to accomplish, and it no doubt gnaws at him the way it frustrates UA fans.
Arizona coach Chip Hale throws batting practice to the Wildcats before they face New Mexico in their home opener Feb. 18, 2025, at Hi Corbett Field.
Hale has yet to lead his team beyond the regional round.
Johnson guided Arizona to the College World Series in his first season. Lopez did it in Year 3. Kindall did it in Year 4.
They set the bar incredibly high. It’s a standard Hale is determined to uphold.
“It’s where this program is supposed to be,” he said during the Big 12 Baseball Championship, which the Wildcats won, earning an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
“We have high expectations in Tucson, and we want to get back to Omaha. That’s where the program has always wanted to be every year. We were very proud to be in the past three regionals. We haven’t fared as well as we should have, and that’s on me.
“This year we’re hoping to do better and take the next step. It’s great to be in all those polls and such, but we want to be playing our best baseball going into the playoffs.”
That just might be happening. After a late-season slump — one that took Arizona out of position to be one of the 16 NCAA Tournament hosts — the Wildcats got their groove back. They take a five-game winning streak into Friday’s 1 p.m. game vs. Cal Poly at Oregon’s PK Park.
The Cats are conference tournament champions. They’re finally healthy after seldom having their lineup intact for any sustained stretch. They’ve recaptured the vibe that had gone missing for a while. They have every reason to feel confident entering Friday.
Of course, you could have said most of those same things last year, and it didn’t do Arizona a bit of good. Heck, the Wildcats were in a better position to succeed in 2024. They were the No. 13 overall seed, hosting the Tucson Regional. They had thousands of rabid UA supporters on their side, squeezed tightly into the Juice Box.
Then Arizona went two-and-out, just like the year before in Fayetteville. In fact, the Wildcats are carrying another five-game streak into PK Park — five straight losses in NCAA regional games.
Arizona coach Chip Hale watches the Wildcats close out a come-from-behind win, 6-3 against TCU, on May 2, 2025, at Hi Corbett Field.
Hale is hopeful that it will be different this time. Although the on-field celebrations were equally joyous, he sensed a slightly different tone after Arizona won the Big 12 Tournament than after it captured the Pac-12 Tournament the year before.
“I felt like the mood in Globe Life was a little different,” Hale said. “Especially the veteran guys were like, ‘OK, this is great. We’re super happy. It was a great game, an exciting game. But we have more things to prove.’”
The Wildcats shouldn’t feel satisfied. They’ve been talking since January about winning a national championship.
After the May 11 win over Utah, which snapped a season-worst four-game losing streak, I asked junior outfielder Brendan Summerhill what he thought was still possible in 2025.
“Everything we talked about at the beginning,” he said. “We believe it. We know we can do it. And we know we’re right there.”
Lack of experience won’t be a factor among the position players. Eight members of the starting nine played on last year’s team. The only exception, center fielder Aaron Walton, is a junior whose disposition never seems to change.
Arizona's Brendan Summerhill follows through on a swing vs. West Virginia in the semifinals of the Big 12 Baseball Championship on May 23, 2025, at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Mason White is playing in his third regional as a Wildcat. Garen Caulfield and Tommy Splaine are playing in their fourth.
“We’re all on one-day contracts,” Caulfield said. “We’re not guaranteed anything. We’re gonna go out there and have fun and try to play Arizona baseball — give ‘em our best shot.”
The starting rotation — Owen Kramkowski, Raul Garayzar, Smith Bailey and Collin McKinney, if needed — has no such experience to fall back on. But they’re coming in hot.
UA starters have notched three quality starts in the past four games. They had four in the previous 53.
Maybe not knowing any better — not having those battle scars — will help the starting staff. The idea is to play freely, right?
I liked what I saw from the bullpen in Arlington. Garrett Hicks looked fresh after a rough patch. Casey Hintz might have found something at Globe Life. Tony Pluta has been money all season. Four others — Julian Tonghini, Hunter Alberini, Eric Orloff and Matthew Martinez — are viable options.
Arizona coach Chip Hale, left, exchanges lineup cards with BYU coach Trent Pratt before their quarterfinal matchup in the Big 12 Baseball Championship on May 22, 2025, at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Arizona also didn’t commit a single error in the Big 12 Tournament. When Hale talks about “playing good baseball,” he’s usually referring to defense. It’s the area in which he takes the most pride and has the most involvement.
Hale primarily played third base during his UA playing days. He remains the program’s all-time leader in hits and games played. He played in the majors and managed the Diamondbacks. He won a World Series as the bench coach for the 2019 Washington Nationals.
Hale has done so many good things in the game of baseball. But he feels he still has something to prove. He’s not wrong.
“Yeah, I do,” Hale said after Arizona’s practice Thursday morning as a light drizzle fell at PK Park. “I feel like that’s something that we need to get past as a program under me and under our coaching staff.
“I won’t shy away from it. It’s definitely something that I would like to do.”
His players would like to do it for him. As White and Pluta noted, they haven’t won a game in the NCAA Tournament, let alone a regional.
As draft-eligible juniors, they might not get another chance. Now is the time.
