Arizona Baseball

NOTES: Illinois pipeline under Hale has brought Arizona Pluta, Hintz, Summerhill, Kent & others

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Arizona coach Chip Hale knows how to find gems in the midwest, specifically the Chicago area.

The Wildcats have six players from Illinois, most from the Windy City, on their roster, and a majority of them have been essential to achieving the program’s spot in the College World Series.

Arizona (44-19) opens its 19th trip to the College World Series at Omaha, Neb., on Friday against Coastal Carolina (53-11) at 11 a.m. on ESPN in a rematch of the 2016 CWS championship series won by the Chanticleers.

Nebraska is relatively close to Illinois, only separated by Iowa and Missouri between the states, so relatives and friends of Brendan Summerhill, Tony Pluta, Casey Hintz, Michael Hilker Jr. and others from Illinois should be part of Arizona’s cheering section.

Jackson Kent, a left-hander who emerged as Arizona’s Friday starter last season, hails from Elk Grove Village, Ill., in the Chicago area. He was drafted in the fourth round by the Washington Nationals in last year’s MLB draft and is pitching for the Nationals’ Single-A+ team this season at Wilmington, Del.

Summerhill, an outfielder projected a first-round pick in this year’s draft, is from Chicago.

Pluta, one of the most decorated Arizona players this season in terms of accolades, was a high school teammate of Hintz (often a setup man for Pluta out of the bullpen) at St. Viator High School at Palatine, Ill., a Chicago suburb.

Hintz pitched a scoreless eighth inning that helped set up Pluta’s program-record 14th save in Sunday’s 4-3 win at North Carolina that clinched the CWS berth.

“It’s my goal to go in there and help the team get outs,” Hintz said in the postgame press conference. “They know to trust me in this situation, to get ground balls. I’m going to be able to go down there and get three outs.”

Hilker, a valuable contributor out of the bullpen, is from Yorkville, Ill. (55 miles from Chicago).

Also on the roster from the Chicago suburbs are left-handed reliever Eric Orloff from Northbrook and freshman catcher Bryk Barnard of Arlington Heights.

A Class of 2025 prospect from Illinois, shortstop Gavin Triezenberg from Chicago suburb Palos Heights, will join Arizona’s program this fall.

Triezenberg, who is 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, batted .437 this season with four home runs, three triples, 13 doubles and 41 RBIs. He also had 24 stolen bases. His OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) was a phenomenal 1.217.

“I just feel like they’re very good at developing players and getting them to MLB, which is obviously my goal,” Triezenberg told Southwest Regional Publishing last month about why he chose Arizona.

ACCOLADES KEEP COMING FOR PLUTA

Pluta, Arizona’s season record-holder with 14 saves, was selected to the ABCA/Rawlings West All-Region First Team on Tuesday.

He is now eligible for ABCA All-America honors, which will be announced this Friday.

The teams are voted on by members of the American Baseball Coaches Association and the process is led by the ABCA NCAA Division I All-America & Coach of the Year Committee.

The right-hander has limited opposing hitters to a .183 batting average in his 28 appearances this year.

He was on the mound to secure Arizona’s victory in the Big 12 Championship title game against TCU, the Wildcats’ Eugene Regional opening win over Cal Poly, and he sealed the program’s ticket to the CWS with a save in the team’s decisive game three win over North Carolina in the Chapel Hill Super Regional on Sunday. The day before that save, he threw 52 pitches in 2 1/3 innings and was the winning pitcher in Arizona’s 10-8 triumph.

Pluta has also been honored this year as the Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, a member of the All-Big 12 Second Team, and as a CSC Academic All-District honoree.

He was also chosen Tuesday to the Perfect Game All-American Second Team along with shortstop Mason White. Starting right-hander Smith Bailey was selected to the Freshman All-American Second Team.

“This team just wants to keep playing,” Pluta said after Arizona’s 10-8 win over North Carolina on Saturday. “We want to keep going. I dream of Omaha.”

WALDEN GROVE GRAD KRAMKOWSKI & BAILEY IN USA BASEBALL TRAINING CAMP

Bailey and fellow right-hander Owen Kramkowski (a Walden Grove graduate) have accepted invites to participate in the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp this summer at Cary, N.C.

The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp will feature 56 of the premier non-draft-eligible college players for a five-game Stars vs. Stripes intrasquad series in North Carolina from June 29–July 3. USA Baseball will name the final Collegiate National Team following training camp July 3.

If selected to the final team, Bailey and Kramkowski would become the 21st and 22nd players to represent the Wildcats on the Collegiate National Team.

“It’s great for Arizona baseball, and it’s great recognition for everybody here,” Hale said of the invites for Bailey and Kramkowski to his team after it practiced at Nebraska-Omaha’s field on Tuesday.

Bailey, a true freshman, has made 17 starts for the Wildcats this season. The Peoria native has earned three wins and struck out 76 over 83 innings while posting a 4.01 ERA. The Wildcats secured a Big 12 Championship title, the Eugene Regional championship, and the Chapel Hill Super Regional crown with him on the mound. He earned a spot on the 2025 Big 12 All-Freshman Team.

Kramkowski, a sophomore playing in his first full season in three years because of elbow surgery, picked up Big 12 all-conference honorable mention. In 17 starts, the Sahuarita native compiled nine wins, 83 strikeouts and posted a 5.48 ERA. Kramkowski’s most impressive start of the season came in the second game of the Wildcats’ rivalry series at Arizona State, in which he went 8 2/3 innings and allowed just three runs while earning the win. It was his first of four consecutive starts in which he would earn the win.

FORMER PIMA PITCHER DRAKE AND WESTERN KENTUCKY RELIEVER TRANSFERRING TO ARIZONA

Former Pima Community College right-hander pitcher J.T. Drake, who spent this season at Texas Tech, announced via X (Twitter) on Tuesday that he is headed back to Tucson to pitch for Arizona.

Western Kentucky left-hander reliever Patrick Morris, a Chandler native who played his first two seasons of college at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, is also coming to Arizona.

Morris was 2-0 with a save in 17 appearances this season for the Hilltoppers. Morris posted an ERA of 1.11 in 32 1/3 innings and held batters to a .177 average. He struck out 33 and walked 13.

Drake, of Las Alamos, N.M., had 15 appearances with the Red Raiders and was 0-1 with a 5.93 ERA. He struck out 10 and walked three in 13 2/3 innings. He did not allow a run in eight of his 15 appearances.

In his two seasons at Pima in 2023 and 2024, Drake made 41 career appearances and posted a 2.21 ERA.

He struck out 142 batters in 146 1/3 innings and was 15-4 with eight complete games in his career. He also produced 15 saves.

He earned NJCAA All-American Third Team honors in 2024 and was Region 1 MVP in 2023.

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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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