OMAHA, Neb. — Chip Hale has experienced this type of disappointment before at the College World Series, losing his first two games as a player here with Arizona in 1985.
The Wildcats lost 2-1 to Texas before falling 9-2 to Stanford at Rosenblatt Stadium 40 years ago.
His first time in Omaha at the CWS as a head coach resulted in a 7-4 loss to Coastal Carolina on Friday followed by an 8-3 defeat at the hands of Louisville on Sunday at Charles Schwab Field.
When reminded of his reversal of fortune from losing both games in 1985 to winning the CWS title in 1986, Hale said, “I like that.”
“I like the way that went,” he added. “Obviously, we didn’t like ’85. It was tough. Same deal. We lost a really close game. Then we didn’t play very well against Stanford.”
When Arizona was eliminated in 1985, Texas scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning off Arizona ace Joe Magrane, and Stanford plated four runs in the eighth to cement the victory.
The Wildcats blew leads in the eighth inning to Coastal Carolina and Louisville in their losses this weekend. The Chanticleers scored four times in the eighth and the Cardinals crossed the plate six times.
Will Hale experience the same fate next season with a championship as he did as a player 40 years ago?
“Yeah, let’s get back here and see if we can repeat what we did in ’86 in 2026,” he said with a smile. “But it’s so hard to get here. There’s seven teams left now, and I wish them all luck. They’re great teams. And we’re sorry that we’re not going to be playing anymore. But it’s baseball.”
A huge difference from 1986 to 2026 is that all the players in Arizona’s starting lineup in 1985, including Hale, returned in 1986.
Garen Caulfield and Tommy Splaine are seniors and Brendan Summerhill, Mason White, Adonys Guzman and Aaron Walton are draft-eligible juniors.
Hale’s pitching staff could be a strength with freshman right-hander Smith Bailey and sophomore right-hander Owen Kramkowski slated to be part of the rotation again. Raul Garayzar, a right-hander who became a starter late in the season, is a senior.
The NCBWA Stopper of the Year, Tony Pluta, is a draft-eligible junior, but may return to complete his aerospace engineering degree in a timely fashion. He was the Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year with a 3.92 GPA.
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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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