Bottom of ninth. Arizona 0, ASU 0. First place at stake on the final weekend of the 2012 Pac-12 regular season.
βIt felt like the World Series,ββ said Arizona pitcher Kurt Heyer, who had kept the Sun Devils scoreless for nine innings. βOh, dude, all hell broke loose.ββ
As UA third baseman Seth Mejias-Brean walked to home plate at Hi Corbett Field, the crowd of 5,451 stood as one, joining Wildcat outfielder Robert Refsnyder, who was hugging first base.
Even those of us in the press box stood, fully aware of the meaning. How often do you come upon a game of such drama? I tapped my Star colleague Ryan Finley on the shoulder. βThis is as good as it gets,ββ I said.
He nodded but didnβt take his eyes off the field.
Arizona was a game out of first place in the Pac-12. The Wildcats had not won a league championship since 1992.
Mejias-Brean, who grew up a Wildcat fan and was a standout football and baseball star at Cienega High School, lined a shot down the third base line. Refsnyder sprinted around second and saw third-base coach Matt Siegel giving him the stop sign.
βI had no intention of stopping,ββ said Refsnyder. The noise at Hi Corbett was deafening.
As Refsnyder neared home, he pitched himself head first toward the plate, beating the throw and the tag by an eyelash. Arizona won 1-0. He then delivered the quote of the 2012 college baseball season.
βI could smell the win,ββ he said. βI could smell the conference title. I could smell the World Series.ββ
Arizona's Robert Refsnyder throws his helmet after he ran through a stop sign at third base to score from first in the bottom of the ninth for the only run of the game and 1-0 win over Arizona State at Hi Corbett Field on May 25, 2012.
A month later, Arizona won the College World Series, capping a matchless postseason in which it went 10-0, outscoring opponents 88-28. Refsnyder was named MVP of the World Series that hot summer night in Omaha, Nebraska.
βItβs the hardest thing Iβve ever done,ββ said Refsnyder, now an outfielder for the Boston Red Sox. βIt made me understand how good you have to be to get this trophy.ββ
The 2012 Wildcats were no Cinderella story. They had a franchise pitcher, Kurt Heyer, who won 13 games, the most at Arizona since Scott Ericksonβs 18 in 1989. They had a core fivesome who would reach the major leagues: Refsnyder, shortstop Alex Mejia, the Pac-12 player of the year, Mejias-Brean and outfielders Joey Rickard and Johnny Field.
Arizona had swept No. 2-ranked Stanford a month before the epic finish against ASU, drew a school-record attendance of almost 80,000 in its first year as full-time tenant at Hi Corbett Field, and played for a coach, Andy Lopez, who knew how to win the big games.
Lopez had coached Pepperdine to the 1992 national championship and coached the Waves, Florida and Arizona to six berths in the College World Series.
Arizona's head coach Andy Lopez gathers his players around and talks about their final week and the push to make the NCAA postseason during practice at Hi Corbett Field on May 22, 2012.
As much as anything else, the Wildcats had the βclutchββ gene. Two days after the stirring 1-0 victory over ASU, the Wildcats again beat the Sun Devils in a bottom-of-the-ninth drama, winning 8-7 on Fieldβs walk-off single.
Said freshman catcher Riley Moore, who scored the winning run: βThis team is destined.ββ
The Team of Destiny swept Missouri and Louisville in the regionals at Hi Corbett Field, then swept St. Johnβs in the Super Regionals on the same field. But it wasnβt until Arizona got to Omaha that its baseball destiny was viewed by a national audience.
The Wildcats beat UCLA and Florida State (twice) before meeting defending national champion South Carolina in a best-of-three series. Arizona won 5-1 and 4-1 without using Heyer, who was being saved for a possible game 3. Young pitchers Konner Wade and James Farris rose to the occasion on the biggest stage, both yielding just one run against the Gamecocks.
Arizona second baseman Trent Gilbert (4) leaps over South Carolina's Chase Vergason, who stole second base and went on to third on a throwing error, in the eighth inning of Game 2 of the NCAA College World Series baseball finals in Omaha, Neb., Monday, June 25, 2012.Β
βI feel like I can walk on air right now,ββ said Heyer after watching Brandon Dixonβs ninth-inning double and Bobby Brownβs steady contributions help Arizona win its fourth baseball national championship, joining those in 1976, 1980 and 1986.
A day later, more than 5,000 fans greeted Lopez and his players in a celebration at McKale Center, at which Lopez said βitβs been a long time since Iβve been part of something like this. I forgot how good it feels.ββ
