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The first full weekend of Pac-10 play is here. With Oregon bringing baseball back last year it’s great to be able to have all 10 teams playing conference series at the same time.

First, where we’ve been. The Pac-10 standings:

Next, where we are (in the polls):

*Others receiving votes

BAS = Baseball America
COL = Collegiate Baseball
NAT = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
USA = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll
RIV = Rivals.com

Now for where we’re going. All series this week are Thursday through Saturday due to the Easter holiday.

ARIZONA (20-5 / 2-1) at Cal (13-10 / 0-3)
Both the UA and Cal blew a late lead on Sunday. The Bears are out to prove they’re not as bad as ASU made them look.

Would you go ahead and lose a game already?
Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

ASU (23-0 / 3-0) at
Oregon (18-8 / 1-2)
Can the Ducks build on the momentum of their thrilling comeback win? Can ASU lose?

OSU (16-5 / 0-0) at
USC (13-12 / 1-2)
The Beavers were cruising right along until getting swept in a double header at home against Long Beach. Are they a Pac-10 contender or, like Arizona, did they build this impressive record with a light non-conference schedule?

Stanford (12-7 / 2-1) at UCLA (21-0 / 0-0)
The series of the week. If UCLA is still undefeated after this weekend it means they’re really, really, really good.

WSU (14-7 / 0-0) at Washington (12-10 / 0-0)
The unseries of the week. Sorry, U-Dub, you’re not playing Dallas Baptist anymore.

For the Cats these next six games (with a bonus seventh game a week from Monday) will be the first road games of the year. Kurt Heyer’s sterling numbers and his classmates’ pretty batting stats will be put to the test. You have to think splitting the six Pac-10 games would be considered a success and then you try and regain the home field magic.

The UA game times are 2:30 p.m. Pacific/Arizona on Thursday and Friday, and 12 noon on Saturday. There are no night games in Berkeley because Cal’s Evans Diamond has no lights.

Can the Cats play lights-out under a foreign sun?

It wasn’t the worst possible way for the Arizona Wildcats baseball team to end its 15-game winning streak. But it was close.

The absolute worst way to lose a baseball game is by committing an error (like this, or maybe you’ve heard of this).

(The worst way to lose a basketball game? Probably like this.)

Next on the blown save suffering spectrum would be walking (or balking) in the final two runs to lose by one. Then comes the way Arizona lost to Oregon on Sunday.

Not everyone can hit 100 mph like Ryan Perry. Or get away with a forearm tattoo.
Photo by Leon Halip/US Presswire

Up by three, two outs in the 9th, bases empty. What could possibly go wrong? The answer is three straight singles and a home run. The Ducks take the lead and go on to win the game. Bye-bye, streak.

Looking at the big picture we have no reason to complain. When the season started – and especially after getting swept by Long Beach – winning 15 total games seemed more likely than winning 15 in a row. The young Wildcats deserve a lot of credit for winning all those games, no matter who they were against.

But there’s no getting around the fact that the bullpen hasn’t been very good. More like iffy at best. Oh, all right…bad. Here are the six save situations thus far for the 2010 Cats:

Feb. 26 vs. Long Beach, leading 7-5 in the 8th. Bryce Bandilla comes in to the start the inning and gives up three runs over the final two innings to lose by one.

Mar. 5 vs. Cal State Fullerton, leading 7-5 in the 8th. Tyler Hale enters the game with one on and two outs and gives up a two-run homer.

Mar. 13 vs. Northern Colorado, leading 7-5 (do you sense a trend?) in the 9th. Hale starts the inning and gives up one run but gets the final out with the tying run on first for the save.

Mar. 20 vs. Sacramento State, leading 7-5 (I’m not making this up) in the 8th. Hale comes in with two on and two outs and gives up a walk and a two-run double.

Mar. 27 vs. Oregon, leading 7-4, in the 8th. Nick Cunningham enters with two on and two outs. He gives up an infield hit to load the bases before getting a pop out to escape. He retires the side in the 9th around an error for the save.

Mar. 28 vs. Oregon, leading 8-5 in the 9th. Cunningham starts the inning and gets the first two men out. You know the rest.

That’s two saves in six attempts. A .333 average may be good at the plate but it’s horrible when you’re trying to close out games.

Bad closers are a part of baseball, but they haven’t been a part of UA baseball. We’re used to strong bullpens from Andy Lopez. Not just strong. Big-league bullpens.

In the last five years the Wildcats have featured Mark Melancon (pitched for the Yankees in 2009), Daniel Schlereth (1st-round pick, pitched for the Diamondbacks in ’09), Ryan Perry (1st-round pick, pitched for the Detroit Tigers in ’09), and Jason Stoffel (4th-round pick of the Giants in ’09).

That means Andy Lopez had three relievers in the Major Leagues last year and another guy on his way (Stoffel had 19 strikeouts and only one walk in his first year in the minors). Lopez-era Cats have the top three single-season save totals in UA history, and six of the top 10. We’re going to have to give the guy the benefit of the doubt when it comes to building a bullpen.

What can you do? Somebody has to be on the mound at the end of close games. You’re only option is to keep running guys out there and hope one of them grows into the job.

And growing is a possibility. Some say great closers are born but that hasn’t been the case at Arizona. Melancon had a 4.33 ERA as a freshman. Schlereth’s ERA was 4.56 as a UA rookie. Perry posted a mammoth 7.34 ERA as a freshman and a 6.35 ERA as a sophomore. They got just a wee bit better as time went by.

So we can’t give up on freshmen arms like Cunningham and Hale. They had some large shoes (and fat wallets) to fill and it’s going to take some time.

Just close your eyes the next time the Cats have a 7-5 lead.

Where were you five years ago?

If you’re not sure let me give you a one-word clue:

Illinois.

Yes, that game, five years ago this past Friday. Even if you weren’t in Illinois you know exactly where you were and how you felt. We didn’t know it at the time but we were witnessing even more than a monumental comeback/collapse.

It was the day the Lute Olson Era died.

You can point to Lute’s failing health and a dip in recruiting as the technical causes for the slide at the end of Coach Olson’s tenure but this game was the axis-shifting moment. If missing the tournament in 2010 was rock bottom, the 2005 Illinois game was the ship hitting the iceberg.

Women and children first!
Photo by Francisco Medina/Tucson Citizen

The 2005 Wildcats were really good. Thirty wins for only the third time under Lute. An 11th Pac-10 championship. An NCAA tournament seed of 4 or better for the 16th time in 18 years. A fourth Sweet 16 in five years and the seventh in 10 years.

All gone, and none of it has been back since.

To commemorate the anniversary I did something for the entire Wildcat Universe. I rewatched the game. That’s right, from start to agonizing finish, I watched so you don’t have to. I hope you never see it again, or at least not until we’re celebrating the fifth anniversary of Sean Miller’s fifth national championship.

(But if you really want to be a punishment glutton, here you go.)

I started with the end of the Oklahoma State game to remind me how close we were to missing the Elite Eight entirely. The chalk said the ‘05 run should have ended right there. The 3-seed battles hard but loses to the 2-seed. No shame there. But Salim Stoudamire had other ideas.

The brooding lefty with the wild hair was incredible in the final five minutes. He scored 10 of the Cats’ final 15 points without a miss. Stoudamire’s game-winner would make the short list of greatest moments in UA sports history if it didn’t take place two days before the absolute worst moment.

Let’s reset the scene. Rosemont, Illinois, just outside Chicago, a mere 153 miles from the University of Illinois campus. The Illini were 35-1 and the arena was packed with loud people wearing orange.

The game went back and forth early. Illinois eventually built a seven-point first-half lead, but the Cats cut it to two before halftime behind the inside/outside play of Channing Frye, Hassan Adams and Ivan Radenovic. Salim Stouramire was struggling, going 0-for-4 from the floor.

Bill Murray got a lot of camera time, rooting for the home team. Now his son is on the Arizona staff and Bill’s on our side. So we got that going for us, which is nice.

Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas were calling the game for CBS and as the second half progressed it was eerie seeing how prophetic they were. “Arizona’s gotta be stronger with the ball,” Nostradabilas said with 13 minutes left. “Those traps are bothering the Wildcats.”

With about eight and a half minutes left Bilas said, “He (Jawann McClellan) got fouled,” to which Enberg replied, “They’re letting them go.”

Channing Frye hit a 3 with six minutes left to push the lead to 12. His final line: 24 points, 12 rebounds, 6 blocks. It was such a joy to watch Channing develop for four years. It’s great to see him finding pro success with the Suns.

With 4:04 left, McClellan made two free throws to make it 75-60 in favor of the Cats. Right about this time my friend looks at me and says, “We’re going to the Final Four!” Never, ever turn your back on Arizona Athletics.

A turnover in the frontcourt with 12 seconds left on the shot clock lets Illinois cut the lead to seven with 1:25 left. With 48 seconds left 90% shooter Stoudamire passes to Mustafa Shakur near midcourt only to see Shakur get stripped. The subsequent inbounds pass to Frye becomes the freeze-frame image for the referee-blaming segment of UA fans.

At this point the Wildcats are clearly shell-shocked and logic goes out the window. On the final possession of regulation with the score tied Salim dribbles down the clock up top like he always did but then he passes to McClellan for the last shot. I don’t care if you’re 2-for-37. That’s your shot.

The final 11.8 seconds of overtime were equally puzzling. Arizona is only down one and still has a chance to pull out the win. The ball is inbounded to Shakur who passes to Adams on the right wing. Salim stands on the left perimeter and doesn’t move. Channing walks down to the left block and doesn’t move. Hassan doesn’t make his move until there are three seconds left and he has to force up an off-balance shot from the top of the key that bounces off the backboard like it was fired by a catapult.

And then the Wildcat world stopped breathing. As fans it took a long time to get over. As a program we’re still trying to dig our way out.

But for the first time in five years we have hope.

In Derrick Williams we have a big man who has the potential to rival Channing Frye’s production. In MoMo Jones we have a budding leader with a flair for the dramatic. But most importantly we have in Sean Miller a coach who has proven he can build conference champions and win games in March.

Where were we five years ago? In a dark, dark place.

Where will we be in five years?

Don’t turn your back on Arizona Athletics.

The Pac-10 baseball teams are ready to get things started for real. Well, some of them anyway.

The way college baseball packs so many games into such a short period of time you have to fit in your non-conference series wherever you can. This leads to an opening weekend where 40% of the Pac-10 teams are playing somebody else.

Fear ye not, TWIT-Pac will be here all season long to tell you what’s what and who’s where in the world of Pacific-10 baseball. Here’s this weekend’s schedule (all series are Friday through Sunday unless noted):

Cal (12-7 / 0-0) at ASU (20-0 / 0-0)
Oregon (17-6 / 0-0) at ARIZONA (18-4 / 0-0)
USC (11-10 / 0-0) at Stanford (10-5 / 0-0)
Cal Poly (7-13) at UCLA (18-0 / 0-0) – Thu.-Sat.
Cal State Bakersfield (9-9) at Washington State (12-5 / 0-0)
Long Beach State (9-10) at Oregon State (14-3 / 0-0)
Washington (9-10 / 0-0) at Dallas Baptist (14-8)

Is this the face of a man who would
dictate an amicable parting?
Photo by Rick Scuteri/US Presswire

In case the gaudy record didn’t tip you off, Arizona State is the team to beat. The three-time defending league champs should have the best team again. The Sun Devils’ only issue is they fired their coach in the offseason for – I’m going to go out on a limb here – cheating.

But with a former assistant at the helm the Devils haven’t missed a beat. In the same way Barry Switzer won the Super Bowl and Tubby Smith has an NCAA tournament championship, Tim Esmay is going to look like a coaching genius with ASU’s loaded roster.

“Loaded” could also be used to describe the Pac-10, with five teams in the current Collegiate Baseball poll. Arizona is among them but we’re still not sure what to make of Andy Lopez‘s Wildcats.

It’s hard to get a gauge on a team that hasn’t played a road game. To make matters worse, they haven’t been very difficult home games. We knew this wasn’t going to be the toughest schedule in the nation but it’s been even softer than expected with Fullerton and Long Beach being down.

In fact, the Cats haven’t played a single weekend series against a team that currently has a winning record.

Even with those advantages the UA is still looking up at people in the Pac-10 standings. As good as we feel about the Wildcats’ 13-game winning streak it’s only the third-best active streak in the conference since ASU and UCLA haven’t lost to anyone. As happy as we are about the UA’s .818 winning percentage, it’s only good enough for fourth place.

Before the season started the Pac-10 coaches voted the Cats fifth behind ASU, OSU, UCLA and Stanford, and that’s probably still a good guess. If you want to bump the UA up to fourth, go ahead, but middle-of-the-Pac is still the best projection for this young team.

If you’re looking for a reason to be optimistic the ASU, UCLA and Stanford series are all in Tucson. If the Cats can survive on the road and continue to hit well at home there’s a chance we could pass some people but that’s a lot to ask a squad with a shaky pitching rotation (nobody has been consistent after Kurt Heyer) and a shakier bullpen (the Cats are dead last in the Pac-10 with only one save as a team).

With the start of league plays comes a return to the airwaves as all three games of the Oregon series will be brought to us by Brian Jeffries on 1290 AM radio. Friday and Saturday’s games are at 6 p.m. and the first pitch Sunday is at noon.

Will the Wildcat wins keep coming? The early part of this rebuilding year has been anything but a disaster so maybe this team is too naïve to realize it shouldn’t be able to continue playing this well against Pac-10 teams. There’s only one way to find out.

Play ball!

The Arizona Wildcats have a new director of athletics and he’s already turning heads. As in, “He’s how old?”

Greg Byrne isn’t the youngest A.D. around but he’s close. There was no one younger when he was hired at Mississippi State and he’s only a year older than the current youngest buck.

Can I see some ID?

What’s age got to do with it? Not a whole lot if you can do the job but the Wildcat faithful aren’t used to this kind of inexperience. Ced Dempsey had 15 years under his A.D. belt before taking the Arizona job. Jim Livengood was an athletic director for eight years before coming to Tucson. Forgive us if we’re a little hesitant about Byrne’s 25-month tenure at Mississippi State.

To his credit it was a busy 25 months. In 2008 Byrne hired a new head football coach (Florida’s offensive coordinator) and a new head baseball coach (Kentucky’s SEC-championship-winning head coach). The hope is no major coaching hires will be needed at Arizona for a while but Wildcat fans will want to keep an interested eye on the careers of Byrne’s two guys at MSU.

The other thing that jumps out from his bio (besides the ASU thing) is the jumping. Three years with the Fiesta Bowl. Three years at Oregon. Four years at Oregon State. Three years at Kentucky. Four years at Mississippi State (in two different positions). It’s enough moving to make Dennis Erickson uncomfortable.

(Speaking of Erickson, Byrne was working for the Fiesta Bowl in January of 1994. Maybe that’s why he wants to work here.)

((If you include his undergraduate work Bryne now has direct ties to four Pac-10 schools. Perhaps he’s trying to collect the whole set.))

From his time in Corvallis you can’t help but notice Byrne was directly involved in securing the donation that led to the naming of Reser Stadium. Will there soon be a For Sale sign on Arizona Stadium?

Mr. Byrne has already brought about one change in Tucson. I set up a Twitter account. That’s right, I have now joined 2007. I was fine with all my friends and associates being cooler than me, but I draw the line at being technologically inferior to the athletics director at my alma mater. Are you ready to be amazed? Go here.

By the way, I’m glad Byrne’s official title is plain ol’ “Athletics Director” and not something like “Vice President for Intercollegiate Contests of Physical Exertion.”

In the short term Greg Byrne won’t be judged by wins and losses. He’ll be judged by dollars and cents. How soon can the football stadium expansion begin? Can McKale Center be continually renovated to keep pace nationally? How much money can he raise to keep the coaches that are (hopefully) good enough that the college sports empires will eventually come calling?

It’s enough to make a young guy grow old quick.

There’s no doubt Byrne brings energy and enthusiasm. If he can continue rising to star status we’ll be hanging on his every word.

I mean, his every tweet.