EUGENE, Ore.—A year ago at this time, a member of Arizona’s future conference was celebrating a regional title on the Wildcats’ home field. That didn’t sit well with Chip Hale, though he tried not to let his players see that frustration.
He was finally able to exhale on Sunday night after the Wildcats completed a perfect run through a regional, one ironically played on the field of a former UA conference foe.
“It’s never easy to win, as we saw last year at our own home when we lost two and were out,” Hale said following the 14-0 win over Cal Poly. “Obviously overwhelmed with emotion to get out of this regional. We knew coming here was going to be difficult. Very proud to win this one, but I think the group feels like we want more, and I think they’re ready to play whoever it is.”
Arizona has advanced to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2021 and sixth time overall and will play either North Carolina or Oklahoma in a best-of-3 series next weekend.
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Hale, freshman pitcher Smith Bailey, third baseman Maddox Mihalakis and center fielder Aaron Walton said about the perfect weekend in Eugene:
Hale on the pressure to get past the regionals: “On social media that was such a such a big deal. I think there was some anxiety there, even Friday, just let’s get this win. And we got that out of the way, and things sort of loosened up a little bit. For me, on a personal basis, I didn’t try to let the team know that, but those things get to you, if you want to be completely honest. I’m a human being. I didn’t like how it went last year in Tucson, and I didn’t care for how it went Arkansas. So I was super proud of these guys, and they picked me up. And it’s a team game, we’re all in it together, and they just kept playing. And we’re going to keep playing.”
On leading 5-0 after the 1st inning: “We came out and jumped on them and didn’t let them up for air.”
On not being satisfied with just a regional title: “I hope that’s how the feel, and that’s how I feel. I feel like that this team has more on their mind, so I think that has a lot to do with it.”
On starting 0-3 against three NCAA Tournament teams: “That’s why we make the schedule the way we make it, we try to play and challenge them. And we knew this was a group, when we put it together a couple of years ago, when Maddox came in, and then next class comes in, we knew Smith and that group was coming in. That’s why we wanted to play those six games in Dallas and then in Houston, and see what we got. It slapped us in the face a little bit. We probably thought we were a little better than we were at that point. It got us back working and then we really got going after that.”
On the Super Regional scenarios: “If North Carolina wins we go to Chapel Hill, and if Oklahoma wins, the committee makes a choice. So there’s a lot of things that go into it. I think bids are looked at, the venues, the weather, all those things will go into it. So we’ll be ready to go. We’ll be back to Tucson tomorrow, take a couple flights back and practice Tuesday. Maybe we’ll be staying in Tucson, who knows?”
On Cal Poly’s program: “I grew up in the Bay Area, a ton of my my school classmates … attended Cal Poly, so I was there all the time, hanging out with them, and (baseball) really wasn’t that big a deal down there. Larry (Lee) turned this thing around. Larry made this into a national program, and we knew when they beat Oregon that they were going to be a tough out. We were going to have to play our best baseball to beat them. He’s done a great job. Recruits well, he teaches, they play the game how you’re supposed to play the game, with respect.”
Mihalakis winning a regional: “It feels awesome. Last year was definitely a disappointment. We had such a great season, and I think it left a sour taste in a lot of the mouths of the people who came back. And I think that this year we kind of just played with that extra chip on our shoulder, coming here in this regional, kind of going down the final stretch of the year. We really turned it on, and we played our baseball, and we just kind of put our best foot forward every day. Being able to come out here with success is great. It’s awesome to be able to keep going.”
On the home run surge: “I think throughout the year, I think we’ve always taken our good swings. I know we hit the ball hard. I think we’re top five in the country in hard hit balls. We play in a big park and come to parks like these, it’s great to see some of those balls fly. So I think we’ve been taking good swings all year, and we’ve felt good all year, and then when we come out here, the weather gets a little bit nicer, those kind of turn into home runs as the year goes on.”
On his first career multi-homer game: “It was good today to be able to drop some good swings on the ball and be able to join the party.”
On the offense catching fire of late: “Baseball, it’s a weird sport. You can go out and play two teams, same team twice, one game is going to be close another game you blow them out. We just kind of showed that here. I feel like if the approach stays the same the whole time, that’s what our team is, and we’re resilient. Go out and find a way to win every day.”
Walton on hitting 4 homers in the last 2 games: “This is postseason baseball, so you’re just trying to get wins. That’s all that matters. Just trying to pass the next guy and just having quality at-bats that’s all that matters. It’s a lot of fun.”
On Arizona hitting 15 homers in the regional: “I think we hit the ball hard all season, it’s a very hitter-friendly park. Just continuing to have good at-bats, putting good swings on the ball is what matters.”
On how far Arizona has come since starting 0-3: “The message hasn’t changed since the very beginning. We’ve got a special group. I think as we continue to go through this it should be a lot of fun. I’m excited to see where we end up.”
On what he has worked on with his hitting: “Just the same stuff that we’ve been focusing on all season. Some feel things, nothing too crazy. It’s baseball.”
Bailey on the key to his last 3 starts: “Honestly, the big difference was throwing less fastballs. I think (Kevin) Vance did a great job of going in looking at the numbers of all the good and bad outings that the team has had as a whole. In all of our good outings, we’ve been below 42 percent fastball rates. So we went back to that, and the success is coming. So that’s what I believe got me through that wall.”
On pitching in back-to-back championship games: “I treat it as every other game. I treat my preparation as it’s every other Sunday game. Today happened to be also on a Sunday, which was nice, but I just trust my preparation throughout the week and keep on my routine, so it’s the same thing every single week, no matter if it’s the last game of the College World Series or Opening Day.”
On not giving up many homers: “Hopefully it stays that way for the rest of the year, but I think we all trust Vance and his pitch calling, I think it’s the best in the country. I think we all just go with what he says and throw with 100 percent conviction with the pitch that’s call. Kind of just simplify to look at the Pitchcom, see the pitch and throw with 100 percent conviction. I think that’s done a great job of letting those longballs all year.”
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