OMAHA, Neb. — Arizona was hoping to get some payback Sunday at the College World Series in its rematch against Louisville.
Instead, the Wildcats were handed their second CWS loss and became the first team eliminated from the eight-team event.
The Cardinals defeated Arizona 13-1 on Feb. 16 at a tournament in Texas. Four months later, the teams met again with much more at stake.
Louisville prevailed again, this time using a six-run eighth inning to rally for an 8-3 victory.
Arizona entered the CWS with a 35-0 record this season when tied or ahead entering the eighth inning. The Wildcats lost both Series games late, the first coming Friday night when Coastal Carolina scored three in the eighth to win 7-4.
That was two days before Louisville bunched six hits and took advantage of two errors in the nightmarish eighth to send Arizona packing.
“That’s the frustrating thing as a coach and as an instructor of baseball,” Wildcats coach Chip Hale said. “It got really ugly at the end there and I take the blame for that. I have to have the team better prepared.”
Hale said he was still proud of what his team had accomplished.
“It doesn’t mean we didn’t have a great season,” he said. “These kids played until the end and did everything they could.”
Garen Caulfield, one of two senior starters, talked about the late-season run Arizona made just to reach the CWS. The Wildcats lost to North Carolina 18-2 in the best-of-three super regional but bounced back to win 10-8 and 4-3 to earn a trip to Omaha.
“It’s meant everything to some of us guys that probably won’t ever play a baseball game again,” he said. “I wouldn’t change it for the world because that’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball this last month.”
Freshman starter Smith Bailey, who pitched six strong innings and held the Cardinals to two runs, said he’ll learn from the season-ending loss.
“I’m just going to take from this experience to be a leader for our team next year and try to bring us back and hopefully get a little bit of a different result,” he said.
Arizona’s Tony Pluta (37) reacts after the Wildcats were defeated by Louisville in Game 5 of the Men’s College World Series at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha on Sunday.
Caulfield gave the Wildcats a little advice for the future.
“I would just tell them to keep the focus on the team and not get caught up in their own personal stats,” he said. “The best teams play together and love one another like we did this year.”
Stopper of the year struggles
Still leading 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Arizona turned to its ace reliever, who hadn’t given up an earned run in more than two months.
Tony Pluta, the 2025 Stopper of the Year according to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, took the mound with a 1.46 earned run average. He had been the Wildcat’s bullpen anchor all season, but sputtered at the end of the road.
Upon entering the game for Garrett Hicks, Pluta inherited runners at first and second. He gave up a bloop single and immediately received mound visit from Kevin Vance.
“I think Kevin wanted to settle him down and let everybody know how we’re going to play this with the bases loaded,” Hale said.
Pluta gave up another single on the next pitch. In 15 total pitches, Pluta allowed five hits and four runs, one of them earned.
“He definitely was not as sharp as he has been,” Hale said. “I know those are some bloop hits and all that, but he gets a lot more swing and miss than that.”
Asked if Pluta’s 60-plus pitches in the super regional round against North Carolina affected him, Hale conceded that workload is “tough” on a reliever.
“It’s a lot of pitches for him,” Hale said.
Cats dig the long ball
Catcher Adonys Guzman launched a solo shot in the top of the third against Louisville. This marked the Wildcats’ second of the tournament and 19th of the postseason.
Due to Schwab Field’s size and the wind blowing in toward home plate, many teams have struggled to hit the ball deep while in Omaha. However, Arizona’s aptitude to those same conditions has allowed them to hit two of those.
Louisville’s Zion Rose (32) scores a run past Arizona’s Adonys Guzman (18) during the eighth inning in game five of the Men’s College World Series at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha on Sunday, June 15, 2025.
Arizona plays in one of the largest parks in college baseball. The Wildcat’s Hi Corbett Field is 369 and 344 feet down the left and right field lines with the wind usually blowing in towards the batters. That length is longer than both of Schwab’s, which are 335 feet.
While the field gets bigger for most teams when they get to Omaha, it actually shrinks for Arizona.
“It feels very familiar,” Shortstop Mason White said before the CWS began. “You can’t hit the ball up in the air, you can’t hit lazy foul balls.”
“That’s how we played at home.”
White hit a home run against Coastal Carolina, which sparked the Wildcats offense. Through five total games, the Wildcats two long balls are more than the rest of the field. Although Arizona was the first team forced to leave Omaha, their slugging kept them in both games.
