Arizona Baseball

ARIZONA NOTES: Chip Hale enters first Super Regional as coach trying to relax Wildcats

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Arizona’s players are going bananas over their postseason success (Arizona Athletics photo)

AllSportsTucson.com writer Lori Burkhart attended Tuesday’s press conference at Hi Corbett Field and contributed to this report.

From the bananas and Gatorade cups as goggles to the dyed hair and mustaches, and now to toys as player-of-the-game prizes, Arizona has created a fun atmosphere that has drawn the team closer as it heads to Chapel Hill, N.C., for its Super Regional matchup with No. 5 North Carolina that begins Friday.

Arizona coach Chip Hale was asked Tuesday how the Wildcats will keep their focus after steamrolling Cal Poly and Utah Valley in the Eugene (Ore.) Regional last weekend and winning eight straight games overall, including the Big 12 tournament championship in the process.

“I think at this time of the year, it’s easier than how it is in the middle,” Hale said. “They know what’s in front of them. They see the team that’s playing. … The focus for them will be fine.

“I’m more of a guy who tries to relax them.”

Arizona (42-18) begins its Super Regional best-of-three series at North Carolina (45-13) Friday at 9 a.m. on ESPN2.

Outfielder TJ Adams developed the idea for toys, such as Hot Wheels cars, to be prizes for the player who helps the team the most. The prizes, showcased within a circle before the game, have also included a helicopter and a firetruck.

He developed the idea when Arizona played its last regular-season series at Houston after the Wildcats lost five of six games against the likes of last-place Utah and the .500 Cougars.

Arizona has not lost since.

“It brings us back to when we were kids playing the game,” Arizona reliever Julian Tonghini said. “TJ, it is something done when he was playing Little League and he brought it here.

“We had a little slump there. When he brought the (toy) cars into it, it was kind of like a reminder that, ‘Hey, we’re having fun. We’re just kids playing this game.”

Mason White must be the runaway for most prizes, right, with six of his 19 home runs (48 overall in his career) in the last couple of weeks?

He said he’s only won it once, when he had three home runs in the 14-4 win over Utah Valley on Saturday night at Eugene.

“It’s not a performance award,” White said. “It’s not about performance; it’s about the team. … Tommy (Splaine), I don’t know how well he hit in one of those (Big 12 tournament) games, but I think in Arlington he made like five crazy (defensive) plays to save the game.

“He got it because he was a team player that day. It’s not about individual statistic performance. It’s about how well did you contribute to winning the baseball game.”

WHAT WOULD JK THINK?

While Hale said he tries to relax his team, letting the players be themselves, it was asked of former Arizona greats Wes Clements and Steve Strong during the “Eye on the Ball” radio show Tuesday how they think their legendary coach Jerry Kindall would react to the bananas, Gatorade cup goggles, toys as rewards, etc.

Clements, who played for the 1980 College World Series championship team, believes Kindall would not allow the extracurricular activities because he was “all about fundamentals” and playing the game with a straightforward purpose.

“He wouldn’t embrace it,” Clements said. “He wouldn’t welcome it. It wouldn’t happen. You know, it just wouldn’t happen.”

He added he understands college baseball is in a different place than when Kindall coached at Arizona from 1973 to 1996.

“We’re in a different era, and of course, social media is so much a part of everything,” Clements said. “But what I can tell you is that the kids and the players will only do what they’re allowed to get away with.”

Clements was mostly critical of players overall dancing around the basepaths after a home run, something Arizona’s players do not exhibit.

Strong, a member of Arizona’s 1986 College World Series team that included Hale, said that Kindall allowed the players to be themselves as long as they played within the team’s framework.

“I don’t think he would love it, but I think he would embrace the enthusiasm of the guys enjoying the game,” Strong said of Arizona’s use of bananas to build a bond together.

Strong told the story of his 1986 teammates Tommy Hinzo, David Taylor and Gar Millay playing a game of rock/paper/scissors to determine who would stretch at the head of a line of players before a game.

“It gradually evolved into the loser had to go stretch somewhere and the two guys could send them to centerfield or the dugout,” Strong said. “As the season progressed and things were going pretty good, by the time we got to the national championship game, that tradition kept playing out.

“Gar Millay stretched at the top of the Rosenblatt Stadium in left field by himself. That’s where they sent him. Coach Kindall was okay with that because that was kind of part of the tradition. So I think Coach Kindall expected us to compete, to win, to be successful, but he definitely let guys kind of be themselves a little bit.”

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Arizona’s eight-game winning streak is in games played at Houston, Arlington and Eugene, not Hi Corbett Field. The last six games won at Arlington and Eugene had playoff pressure involved.

The Wildcats are 18-12 away from Hi Corbett Field (10-8 in true road games and 8-4 in neutral sites). They are 8-1 in their last nine neutral-site games because they lost the first three games of the season at Arlington.

Although Arizona had the opportunity to host the Super Regional, the Wildcats are not disappointed that they have to hit the road again to Chapel Hill. It will mark four straight weekends away from Tucson.

Had Oklahoma upset North Carolina on Monday, the Sooners or Wildcats would have hosted the Super Regional based on the NCAA’s determination. That became moot after the Tar Heels won 14-4.

“It’s been fun; just feels like another weekend, just another road series,” White said of the travel. “We’re just a band of brothers on the road. It feels like when we go out there, we’re going off to war. We’re leaving Tucson, going to get done and then we’re going to come back and go out for the next one.

“It’s gotten us a lot closer than before.”

FIVE ARIZONA PLAYERS IN THE TRANSFER PORTAL

Hale confirmed that five players who are not on the active roster have entered the transfer portal.

Four of them are pitchers — left-hander Jack Berg and right-handers Christian Coppola, Kenan Elarton and Karter Muck. The other is third baseman Richie Morales, who was replaced by Maddox Mihalakis this season after Morales started 42 games last year.

Arizona lists 40 players on its roster. It can take 27 on the road. Morales and the four others transferring are not part of the 27.

“It’s tough; they’re still a part of this team,” Hale said. “This is the landscape of college sports now we have to deal with. They have to do what’s best for their careers.

“They are not here on the current roster so trying to communicate with them on a weekly basis trying to keep them involved with what we’re doing. But of course they are in the portal and we always wish them the best.”

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

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