NCAA Baseball Tournament: Arizona blanks Cal Poly to win Eugene Regional, awaits Super Regional opponent

EUGENE, Ore.—In 2004, when Arizona ended an 18-year College World Series drought, little did it know it had started a trend that the program has continued for more than two decades.

Since then, every fourth NCAA Baseball Tournament the Wildcats have made it to at least the second weekend. The 2008 team reached the Super Regionals, while squads in 2012, 2016 and 2021—remember, 2020 never happened—got to Omaha.

The pattern continued on Sunday night as Arizona completed a clean sweep of the Eugene Regional, beating Cal Poly 14-0 at PK Park to earn a spot in the Super Regionals for the sixth time.

The Wildcats (42-18) will face either No. 5 North Carolina or Oklahoma, who have to play a second game on Monday to determine the Chapel Hill Regional, next weekend. If UNC wins the best-of-3 series will be in Chapel Hill, while if the Sooners win the NCAA will decide which school hosts.

Arizona won its eighth straight game—the second-longest active streak in the country—by once again abusing the small PK Park dimensions, hitting six home runs a night after crushing a school-record eight against Utah Valley. Three were by Aaron Walton, each a 2-run shot, giving him four in the regional after going 14 games without a longball, while Maddox Mihalakis had his first career 2-homer game.

In three games in Eugene the Wildcats clubbed 15 homers, with 20 coming over the past six games and 33 in the last 13 contests.

The UA also got another lights-out pitching performance from a starter, a common denominator during the win streak. True freshman Smith Bailey threw six shutout innings, allowing four hits with a walk and five strikeouts, making for the fifth quality start in the last seven games for Wildcat pitchers.

Hunter Alberini, Julian Tonghini and Matthew Martinez then followed with scoreless innings of relief. That came after the bullpen blanked Utah Valley the final six on Saturday.

Arizona wasted no time trying to put this one away, sending nine to the plate in the bottom of the 1^st and scoring five times. It took eight pitches to get the lead on Walton’s first 2-run homer of the night.

The rest of the first-inning scoring came from manufacturing runs and getting a little bit of luck. The Wildcats had two infield singles, one by Tommy Splaine that slowly rolled up the 3^rd base line and stayed fair long enough to hit the back, scoring a run in the process, with the other runs coming home on a wild pitch and a groundout.

The second saw former UA left-hander Josh Morano come in for Cal Poly (43-19) and he promptly gave up another 2-run homer to Walton and a solo shot by Mihalakis. Morano settled down after that, keeping his old team off the scoreboard until the 6^th when Walton hit a third 2-run bomb.

Walton, who was 4 for 5 with six RBI, became the 10^th player in school history with a 3-homer game and second in as many days following Mason White on Saturday.

Splaine added a 2-run shot in the 7^th, his second of the regional after homering only twice during the regular season, and Mihalakis got a 2-run moonshot just over the fence in right in the 8^th.

The win was the 150^th for Hale, who has made the NCAA Tournament each of his four years coaching his alma mater. He did it in 242 games, one more than predecessor Jay Johnson.

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