Arizona Baseball

NOTES: Arizona enters Eugene Regional on five-game winning streak, letting good times roll

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Arizona celebrates after its victory over TCU in the Big 12 tournament championship game Saturday at Globe Life Field at Arlington, Texas (Arizona Athletics photo)
RELATED: A look at teams, including Arizona, in the Eugene Regional hosted by No. 12 seed Oregon that starts Friday when Arizona faces Cal Poly at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.

AllSportsTucson.com writer Lori Burkhart contributed to this report

Let the good times roll
Let them knock you around
Let the good times roll
Let them make you a clown

The Cars were on to something 47 years ago when they wrote that song.

The Cats are taking their cue.

Arizona is letting the good times roll and that’s made the Wildcats clowns, wearing on their heads bananas taped together and using paper Gatorade cups as goggles.

It is also making them winners again, sparking the fervor the Wildcats had late last year with bananas on their heads and around their necks. Some fans attended games dressed as bananas.

That type of fun was part of the Wildcats’ run to a Pac-12 regular-season and tournament championship in 2024.

Arizona needed a spark after losing two of three games against Utah, the Big 12’s last-place team, and falling in the first game at lower-division conference opponent Houston.

“Before making that trip down there (to Houston), we kind of hit a tough patch here against Utah, and we were like, ‘What can we do to bring everyone together for one common reason?'” Arizona senior second baseman Garen Caulfield said during a press gathering Monday at Hi Corbett Field after the NCAA tournament selection show.

“I credit (sophomore outfielder) TJ Adams for finding something little every game that both pitchers and hitters can work together to win and bring us together as a team for one common goal. That seems to be working, so we’re going to roll with that.”

Arizona defeated Houston convincingly in the last two games of that series two weeks ago by scores of 14-6 and 8-1 before going on its 3-0 run through the Big 12 tournament at Globe Life Field at Arlington, Texas, last week.

They did not return home after the Houston series, so that meant 11 straight days in Texas from the Wednesday before the series with Houston started to the Sunday after beating TCU in the Big 12 championship game Saturday night.

“I think some of it could have been time — we were in Texas a long time and we had some free time during the day,” Arizona coach Chip Hale reasoned about the antics his players started to exhibit.

“Maybe that but also they wanted to create the energy and get the guys going.”

Some of the Wildcats also sported mustaches and senior first baseman Tommy Splaine dyed his hair blonde before getting a buzz cut.

“Honestly, my girlfriend helped me a little bit with it (his hair), but I’ve been wanting to do it for a while with the buzz cut,” Splaine said. “It’s just kind of something I felt like I could do for playoffs. I couldn’t do the mustache right then and there, so I wanted to do something.”

TIME FOR AN NCAA TOURNAMENT WIN

Hale is the first Arizona coach since Frank Sancet to lead Arizona’s program to an NCAA tournament appearance in his initial four years as head coach. Sancet achieved that feat from 1950 to 1953.

Getting to the tournament is one thing. Winning while there is a different challenge.

Dating to when Arizona played in the Coral Gables (Fla.) Regional in 2022, Hale’s first year as coach, the Wildcats have lost five straight NCAA tournament games (going 0-2 in the Fayetteville, Ark., Regional in 2023 and the Tucson Regional last season).

Arizona did not come close to winning any of those games, outscored by an average of 8.4 runs, including a 22-6 loss to Ole Miss in an elimination game at Coral Gables that started the stretch.

“We’ve talked about the things we did, that we’ve tried to do all year … try to peak at the right time,” Hale said. “I think a lot of it’s matchups. Last year, we knew after the tournament, with the teams coming to us, they were all real tough matchups w,hether we were at home or playing on Mars.

“We’ll look at these teams. We just have to play better baseball. That’s what it came down to. We just didn’t play well enough on that weekend. If you don’t play well enough on the weekend, you’re going to go home.”

Hale told reporters Monday that he sensed a different vibe following the win over TCU in the Big 12 tournament title game Saturday, compared to Arizona’s walk-off win over USC last year in the Pac-12 championship game.

“After last year with the Pac-12 championship, guys were sky high and we obviously didn’t continue that into the regional here in Tucson,” Hale said. “I felt like the mood in Globe Life was a little different. I felt like, especially the veteran guys were like, ‘Okay, this is great. We’re super happy. It was a great game, exciting game, but we have more things to prove.'”

SHINING SOUTHERN ARIZONA STARS

Hale mentioned in jest that without Ironwood Ridge graduate Andrew Cain, “we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Cain’s ninth-inning home run against TCU forced the game into extra innings, setting up Maddox Mihalakis‘ game-winning RBI single in the 10th for the 2-1 victory.

Cain’s home run put an exclamation point to how Arizona’s Southern Arizona talent earned the Wildcats the Big 12 championship.

Big 12 tournament Most Outstanding Player Mason White of Salpointe went 10 of 14, had three home runs, a double, triple, seven runs and seven RBIs in the three victories.

Walden Grove alum Owen Kramkowski has emerged as Arizona’s ace (Friday starter), and he showed that in the Big 12 tournament, pitching six scoreless innings in the Wildcats’ 4-1 win over BYU in the quarterfinals.

Rio Rico graduate Raul Garayzar also pitched six scoreless innings in Arizona’s 12-1 win over top-seeded West Virginia in the semifinal game.

Hale has lauded all of the Southern Arizona stars. He mentioned Monday of Kramkowski: “He’s been huge.”

“I think that’s one thing people don’t realize — our pitching is really young,” Hale said. “You talk about your Friday night starter (Kramkowski) didn’t start as a freshman, maybe a couple of innings and now he’s our Friday-night guy.

“Our Sunday (starter) is a freshman (Smith Bailey). We talk about now he’s probably (like) a sophomore. He has three more years to play here. But Kram’s been huge. The guy you give the ball to Friday night sets the tone for the series. That’s part of the reason why we moved him into that role. Being a local kid with a local family, a prominent family here in Tucson, it’s been a big deal. Obviously, Andrew Cain and Mason White, those guys have been huge people for us.”

Owen’s father Paul is the senior director of real estate and facilities at Raytheon Technologies.

The younger Kramkowski pitched at Walden Grove for former coach Murray Hicks, who played with Hale at Arizona. They were part of Arizona’s 1986 College World Series championship team.

Owen suffered a season-ending elbow injury his senior season with the Red Wolves in 2022, but Hale honored his recruitment of the 6-foot-4 right-hander — one of the best decisions he’s made.

FOLLOW @JAVIERJMORALES ON TWITTER!

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 in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

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