Twitter @Scott_Terrell
Bryce Ortega and the Cats stopped their slide.
Photo by David Wallace/The Arizona Republic
One man’s desperation is another man’s inspiration.
The week began with the Arizona Wildcats baseball team gambling to try and win a single game against ASU. The week ended with a sweep of USC that injected life into a fading squad.
The Beavers and their great uniform font are coming to Tucson.
Photo by Matt Pavelek/The Arizona Republic
Final Four? What Final Four?
It’s the first full weekend of the final season of Pac-10 baseball. After this year the 10-team league will become the Pac-12 and feature…10 teams.
Let’s play some ball!
Yes, coach, your team is #1.
Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE
The Arizona Wildcats are Pac-10 champions!
Sean Miller and his team do not have to feel ashamed about the league being down. Conference RPIs aren’t listed on championship banners. A coach’s bio never says, “He won his conference 12 times (but a couple of them were against some really crummy teams).” There is absolutely no reason to apologize.
The Cats will, however, have to apologize if they think their work is done.
The Arizona Wildcats salvaged the final game of the regular season thanks to a huge home run from Steve Selsky and the work of four pitchers.
Selsky’s game-winning (and potentially season-saving) shot came with two outs in the 6th inning. Vincent Littleman, Nick Cunningham, Stephen Manthei and Bryce Bandilla combined to limit Oregon State to a single run in the 3-1 victory.
Now things get interesting.
Here are the final Pac-10 standings:
| Place | School | Wins | Loses | Games Back | RPI | 1 | ASU | 20 | 7 | - | 1 | 2 | UCLA | 18 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 3 | WSU | 15 | 12 | 5 | 28 | 4 | Stanford | 14 | 13 | 6 | 36 | 5-T | Cal | 13 | 14 | 7 | 37 | 5-T | Oregon | 13 | 14 | 7 | 31 | 7-T | ARIZONA | 12 | 15 | 8 | 25 | 7-T | OSU | 12 | 15 | 8 | 23 | 9 | Washington | 11 | 16 | 9 | 60 | 10 | USC | 7 | 20 | 13 | 68 |
The RPI numbers are the estimates going into Sunday’s games.
I didn’t think the USC/Washington series mattered but it is good that the Trojans took the final two games of the series to leave the Huskies alone in 9th place. It cleans up the standings so the top eight teams are clearly the top eight teams and all can argue they deserve a bid.
Do they all deserve a bid? ASU and UCLA are officially in as they have already been announced as regional hosts. Washington State is alone in third place with a top-30 RPI. The Cougars are a lock.
After that? This is where the human element of a particular selection committee comes in. Of the five Pac-10 bubble teams the two with the best RPI have the worst conference record and the two with the lowest RPI have the best conference record.
If I had to rank the five teams based on their likelihood of getting a bid I’d go with Stanford, Oregon, OSU, Arizona and Cal. Stanford has the most wins against the RPI top-50. The Beavers and Wildcats have an almost identical profile with OSU getting the advantage due to head-to-head and a better finish. If the league only gets seven in the odd man out should be Cal. Some will agree but others will not.
We’ll see how this story ends in just a few hours as the field of 64 is revealed at 9:30 a.m. Arizona/Pacific time Monday morning.
All eight would be great.
The Arizona Wildcats scored five runs in the 4th inning on their way to a 12-4 victory to even the series with Arizona State.
Joey Rickard hit a three-run home run in that 4th inning and Kyle Simon pitched seven strong innings to pick up his team-leading 8th win of the season.
The victory was the 1,000th of Andy Lopez’s 28-year coaching career.
The 12-4 score wasn’t the only thing reversed from Saturday’s ASU win. In the first game the Sun Devils were able to counteract every Arizona charge. When the Cats scored two in the second ASU answered with two in the third. Immediately after the UA scored two in the 5th the Devils scored two in the 6th.
On Sunday Simon had the answer to prevent the ASU answers. After being staked to a 7-2 lead in the 4th the sophomore right-hander retired the Devils in order in the top of the 5th. When Arizona State crept closer with two runs in the 6th the Wildcat bats responded with two more in the bottom half of the inning to push the lead back to six.
But the most stunning change from Saturday to Sunday was the work of Bryce Bandilla. The Sun Devils had to be salivating when the lefty was called upon to protect a six-run lead with two on and nobody out in the 8th. Bandilla inherited a 2-0 count and proceeded to walk Johnny Ruettiger to load the bases. The Arizona closer then bounced back to strike out Raoul Torrez and get Deven Marrero to ground into an inning-ending double play.
It was the exact opposite of “Whack! In the gap,” which is how Lopez described Bandilla’s appearance in the first game.
With the series even at a game apiece and the season series knotted at two, it sets up a winner-take-all contest at 6 p.m. on Monday. “All” for ASU now includes extra breathing room in the Pac-10 standings as 2nd-place UCLA completed a sweep of USC to put a little pressure on the Sun Devils.
The Wildcats are looking for another resume-enhancing win over the top team in the league as they attempt to differentiate themselves from the six-team jumble of Pac-10 squads trying to land NCAA tournament bids.
ASU will start sophomore RHP Jake Borup (10-1) Monday evening. Arizona has yet to name a starting pitcher.
