Arizona Baseball

Crashing the party: Arizona to face TCU in Fayetteville (Ark.) Regional of NCAA tournament


Take a deep breath — the Arizona Wildcats are in the NCAA tournament as one of the last bubble teams to make the 64-team field.

Arizona (33-24) was one of the last four teams announced in Monday morning’s NCAA selection show.

The Wildcats were overall one of the last four teams to be seeded into the tournament.

Arizona’s baseball players responded to seeing their name appear on the screen during ESPN’s selection show by piling on each other while screaming loud in jubilation in their locker room.

Chip Hale’s team, which won seven of eight games to reach Saturday’s Pac-12 tournament championship game against Oregon, will play in the Fayetteville (Ark.) Regional against TCU (37-22) that starts Friday at 6 p.m., Tucson time, on ESPNU.

Arizona is one of five Pac-12 teams to make the field, joining Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State and Washington. Bubble teams Arizona State and USC did not make the field. The Wildcats were 4-1 against those teams in their last five meetings with them.

NCAA baseball tournament selection committee chairman John Cohen told ESPN that Arizona’s RPI (45th) and late-season wins against ASU, USC and UC-Irvine were a deciding factor.

“Their RPI was the fifth-best in the league overall,” Cohen said. “I think you’re comparing apples to apples with RPI when you’re talking about Pac-12 schools alone. They had16 wins in the Pac-12 and fifth-best RPI in a very elite league.

“They make it to the championship game of the league tournament. Great series win against USC (to end the regular season at Hi Corbett Field). Their last two outings against Arizona State (wins of 20-0 and 12-3) were really impressive and they have a win late in the year against Irvine. So I think it is a very solid resume and it was reflected by the RPI.”

Arizona compiled 20 wins against top 100 RPI teams and played the 25th toughest schedule in the nation. The selection marks the 42nd NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, the sixth most in the nation.

Arizona finished eighth in the regular-season Pac-12 standings, but the Wildcats were 10-7 in their last 17 games against conference opponents, including two wins over No. 8 seed and regular-season champ Stanford. Arizona run-ruled the Cardinal 14-4 in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals two weeks after winning 21-20 in 10 innings at Palo Alto, Calif.

The Wildcats have one of the best lineups in program history with left fielder Chase Davis blasting 21 home runs and CDO graduate Kiko Romero, a first baseman, producing 86 RBIs that ties the single-season Arizona record set by Ron Hassey in 1974.

The Wildcats are batting .321 as a team with 93 home runs and 460 RBIs.

Their pitching has struggled overall with a 5.87 ERA but the Wildcats have received quality starts of late from Pima College transfers Bradon Zastrow (6-5, 5.28 ERA) and Aiden May (5-2, 6.50) to supplement Cam Walty (5-0, 5.33) in the rotation. Zastrow is a left-hander and May and Walty are right-handers.

The relievers, led by right-hander Dawson Netz’s 3.87 ERA in 26 innings, have been mostly reliable of late as well.

Fayetteville Opponent Information

  • No. 1 Arkansas (at-large) [No. 3 national seed]
    • Conference: SEC
    • Record: 41-16 (20-10)
    • Head Coach: Dave Van Horn
  • No. 2 TCU (automatic qualifier)
    • Conference: Big 12
    • Record: 37-22 (13-11)
    • Head Coach: Kirk Sarloos
  • No. 4 Santa Clara (automatic qualifier)
    • Conference: West Coast
    • Record: 35-18 (17-10)
    • Head Coach: Rusty Filter

Stat leaders for Arizona:

BATTING

BATTING AVERAGE
Davis, Chase.369
Bingham, Mac.369
Romero, Kiko.347
McClaughry, Nik.336
Bullard, Tony.335
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE
Davis, Chase.757
Romero, Kiko.711
Bullard, Tony.607
Bingham, Mac.590
White, Mason.590
RUNS
McClaughry, Nik71
Davis, Chase70
Bingham, Mac68
Romero, Kiko58
White, Mason48
HITS
Bingham, Mac90
Davis, Chase79
McClaughry, Nik78
Romero, Kiko78
Bullard, Tony64
RUNS BATTED IN
Romero, Kiko86
Davis, Chase74
Bingham, Mac51
Bullard, Tony42
McClaughry, Nik39
DOUBLES
Bingham, Mac20
White, Mason18
Romero, Kiko17
Davis, Chase16
Bullard, Tony14
TRIPLES
White, Mason7
McClaughry, Nik5
Romero, Kiko4
Davis, Chase2
Bingham, Mac2
HOME RUNS
Davis, Chase21
Romero, Kiko19
Bullard, Tony12
Bingham, Mac10
White, Mason8
TOTAL BASES
Davis, Chase162
Romero, Kiko160
Bingham, Mac144
White, Mason118
Bullard, Tony116
WALKS
Davis, Chase42
Romero, Kiko36
McClaughry, Nik35
Bingham, Mac31
White, Mason22
HIT BY PITCH
Davis, Chase13
McClaughry, Nik11
Romero, Kiko9
Casagrande, Tyler9
Caulfield, Garen6
SACRIFICE BUNTS
Casagrande, Tyler2
McClaughry, Nik1
Caulfield, Garen1
Bingham, Mac1
White, Mason1
SACRIFICE FLIES
Romero, Kiko8
Bingham, Mac6
Caulfield, Garen4
Casagrande, Tyler4
McClaughry, Nik3
STOLEN BASES
McClaughry, Nik7
Bingham, Mac7
Romero, Kiko6
Caulfield, Garen2
White, Mason2

PITCHING

EARNED RUN AVERAGE
Zastrow, Bradon5.28
May, Aiden6.50
OPPOSING BAT AVERAGE
Zastrow, Bradon.306
May, Aiden.317
WINS
Zastrow, Bradon6
May, Aiden5
INNINGS PITCHED
Zastrow, Bradon76.2
May, Aiden70.2
BATTERS STRUCK OUT
May, Aiden70
Zastrow, Bradon56
APPEARANCES
Zastrow, Bradon17
May, Aiden15
GAMES STARTED
May, Aiden15
Zastrow, Bradon15

FIELDING

FIELDING PERCENTAGE
Casagrande, Tyler1.000
Orloff, Eric1.000
Netz, Dawson1.000
Long, Trevor1.000
Barraza, Chris1.000
TOTAL CHANCES
Romero, Kiko534
LaLiberte, Cameron252
Splaine, Tommy250
McClaughry, Nik246
White, Mason184
PUTOUTS
Romero, Kiko503
Splaine, Tommy233
LaLiberte, Cameron214
Bingham, Mac116
Davis, Chase100
ASSISTS
McClaughry, Nik175
White, Mason107
Bullard, Tony71
Caulfield, Garen65
LaLiberte, Cameron34
ERRORS
White, Mason8
Bullard, Tony8
McClaughry, Nik4
Davis, Chase4
LaLiberte, Cameron4
FIELDING DOUBLE PLAYS
Romero, Kiko38
McClaughry, Nik26
White, Mason22
Caulfield, Garen13
Bullard, Tony4
CAUGHT STEALING BY
LaLiberte, Cameron10
Kent, Jackson3
Zastrow, Bradon3
Nichols, TJ2
Susac, Anthony “Tonko”2

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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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