The main objective of Arizona’s baseball team is to bring home the program’s fifth national title — first since 2012 — as it enters its 42nd NCAA tournament appearance Friday at the Fayetteville (Ark.) Regional.
Along the way, the Wildcats (33-24) may continue to etch their team and some of the player names into the school’s record books.
Arizona, seeded third in the regional, will open against No. 2 TCU (37-22) at 6 p.m. (Tucson time) on ESPNU.
No. 4 Santa Clara (35-18) will play No. 1 Arkansas (41-16) at 12 p.m. on ESPN-Plus. The Razorbacks are the No. 3 overall seed.
Looking ahead: The winner of the Fayetteville Regional will play the winner of the Terre Haute (Ind.) Regional in a best-of-three-game Super Regional from June 9-11 or June 10-12. No. 14 national seed and top-seeded Indiana State (42-15) hosts second-seeded Iowa (42-14), third-seeded North Carolina (35-22) and fourth-seeded Wright State (39-21) in Terre Haute.
U (of A) betcha: Arizona has the 33rd-best odds (+15000/tied with Washington) to win the College World Series title out of the 64-team field, according to DraftKings.
The Wildcats’ odds to make it out of the Fayetteville (Ark.) Regional is third-best:
Arkansas +130
TCU +300
Arizona +320
Santa Clara +600
For the (school) record: Chase Davis will not break Shelley Duncan’s career home run record of 55, set from 1999 to 2001, but the junior left fielder can very well become only the third Wildcat to hit at least 40 home runs. He is at 39, four behind Brad Glenn’s 43 home runs from 2006-09 for second place. …
Davis is three home runs shy of Duncan’s season record of 24 set in 2001. George Arias had 23 in 1993. Davis is at 21 … CDO graduate Kiko Romero has 19 home runs. One more home run for Romero and Davis and Romero can match the feat of Arias and Jason Thompson of being the only Arizona teammates to each hit at least 20 home runs in a season. Thompson hit 20 home runs in 1993. … Romero and Davis can also join Trevor Crowe and Nick Hundley in 2005 as the school’s only duo with each reaching at least 40 extra-base hits in a season. Crowe holds the record of 49 and Hundley had 40. Romero has 40 and Davis 39. …
Davis is close to Dennis Haines’ slugging-percentage record of .765 set in 1974. Davis is at .757. …
Romero is tied atop the RBI list with 86, matching the record set in 1974 by Ron Hassey. …
Arizona’s 93 home runs is second only to the 115 produced by the 1993 team that included Arias (23 home runs), Thompson (20), Todd Landry (17), Willie Morales (13) and Robbie Moen (10).
INDIVIDUALS
CAREER
HOME RUNS
- Shelley Duncan, 55 (1999-2001)
- Brad Glenn, 43 (2006-09)
- Chase Davis, 39 (2021-23)
- Kenny Corley, 36 (1995-98)
- Nick Quintana, 35 (2017-19)
SEASON
HOME RUNS
- Shelley Duncan, 24 (2001)
- George Arias, 23 (1993)
- Chase Davis, 21 (2023)
- Kiko Romero, 20 (2023)
Jason Thompson, 20 (1993)
Shelley Duncan, 20 (1999)
C.J. Ziegler, 20 (2008)
RBIs
- Kiko Romero, 86 (2023)
Ron Hassey, 86 (1974) - Ron Hassey, 84 (1976)
Terry Francona, 84 (1980) - Terry Francona, 81 (1979)
Alan Zinter, 81 (1989)
EXTRA-BASE HITS
- Trevor Crowe, 49 (2005)
- Todd Trafton, 44 (1986)
- Jacob Berry, 41 (2021)
Kevin Long, 41 (1989) - Kiko Romero, 40 (2023)
Cameron Cannon, 40 (2019)
JJ Matijevic, 40 (2017)
Dave Stegman, 40 (1976)
Les Pearsey, 40 (1978)
Willie Morales, 40 (1993)
Nick Hundley, 40 (2005) - Chase Davis, 39 (2023)
TOTAL BASES
- Trevor Crowe, 188 (2005)
- George Arias, 173 (1993)
Jason Thompson, 173 (1993) - Dave Stegman, 168 (1976)
- Jacob Berry, 167 (2021)
- Todd Trafton, 166 (1985)
- Terry Francona, 164 (1980)
Todd Trafton, 164 (1986) - Robert Woodside, 163 (1977)
- Chase Davis, 162 (2023)
Kevin Long, 162 (1989)
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE
- Dennis Haines, .765 (1974)
- Lloyd Jenney, .758 (1952)
- Chase Davis, .757 (2023)
- Alan Hall, .754 (1960)
- Les Pearsey, .735 (1978)
- Ken Bolek, .734 (1974)
- Jason Hendricks, .718 (1998)
- Dillon Baird, .716 (2009)
- Trevor Crowe, .715 (2005)
- Richard Lemons, .713 (1993)
- Kiko Romero, .711 (2023)
HIT BY PITCH
- Colt Sedbrook, 55 (2006-08)
- Jett Bandy, 54 (2009-11)
- Brad Glenn, 42 (2006-09)
- Donta’ Williams, 40 (2018-21)
- Jason Donald, 39 (2004-06)
- Kenny Corley, 32 (1995-98)
- Nik McClaughry, 30 (2021-23)
Joey Rickard, 30 (2010-12)
Ryan Haug, 30 (2016-18)
TEAM
SEASON
DOUBLES
- 177 (1986)
- 158 (1993)
- 154 (2019)
- 153 (2005)
- 149 (2023)
HOME RUNS
- 115 (1993)
- 93 (2023)
- 87 (1998)
- 78 (2000)
- 77 (2008)
HIT BY PITCH
- 96 (2006)
- 90 (2021)
90 (2007) - 80 (2011)
- 79 (2023)
STRIKEOUTS
- 574 (2022)
- 501 (2021)
- 485 (2016)
- 444 (2023)
- 438 (2019)
SACRIFICE FLIES
- 49 (1986)
- 42 (2012)
- 39 (1985)
39 (2007) - 38 (2023)
38 (2021)
38 (2003)
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE
- .592 (1993)
- .575 (1998)
- .562 (1974)
- .552 (2023)
- .536 (1986)
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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