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.

UA coach Andy Lopez looked desperate Tuesday night. Midweek games are supposed to be handled by second-line pitching with the top arms reserved for the “real” games on the weekend. But there was Wildcat ace starter Kurt Heyer throwing six innings in a non-conference game against a team that had already beaten the Cats three out of four times.

The move backfired and the Sun Devils won again. Arizona appeared to be grasping at straws and gasping for air.

Go ahead and exhale, BatCat fans. There’s life in this team yet. A Pac-10 series sweep’s worth of life.

It wasn’t easy. Well, two of the games weren’t. Saturday night’s contest was a 20-4 laugher but the bookends were hard-fought battles where the home team had to come from behind.

In the series opener the Wildcats rallied in the 5th and 8th innings before winning it in the 10th. On Sunday the deficit was 5-0 after three innings before Arizona scored eight unanswered runs the rest of the way.

“It could’ve been real easy for these guys to say, ‘Aw, here we go again,’” Lopez said about trailing early on Friday. “I thought they did a great job of just battling through it. I’m real proud of them.”

The UA offense piled up 32 runs in the three games but the true heroes came out of the Arizona bullpen. Maligned most of the season, the Wildcat relievers were exceptional against USC, picking up all three wins in the series.

Matt Chaffee, Vincent Littleman and Bryce Bandilla each recorded a victory as the trio combined to pitch 12 innings of shutout baseball.

Chaffee, the best closer in America with a 5+ ERA, now has five wins and five saves on the year. He didn’t want to come out of Friday’s extra-inning game and was ready to close it out again Sunday afternoon.

“I wanted it to be on my back,” the junior left-hander said.

Sunday’s win was the true breakthrough for this team. It marked the first time the 2011 Wildcats had won the third game in a Pac-10 series. The Friday magic has been strong. The Sunday curse is finally over.

The beauty of a sweep is it effectively turns one of your previous series losses into a win. The Cats still have only won two of six league series but their Pac-10 record now sits at an even 9-9.

Last year’s team lost six consecutive series to end the season. This year’s team is looking to pull a reversal.

The next hurdle is the final non-conference series, a matchup with Alcorn State. The Braves are just 22-20 overall but have already clinched the SWAC Eastern Division and will bring a 10-game winning streak to Tucson.

After that the Wildcats leave town for back-to-back Pac-10 road series before closing out with three at home. The good news is the UA’s three remaining conference opponents – Washington State, Stanford and Washington – all have losing records in league play.

The potential is there for this team to go on a nice run to finish up the regular season. Can the Cats maintain their intensity and level of execution?

“Now that we know how many games we have left and how much we need to win I don’t think we’re going to be down,” Chaffee said. “I think the rest of the year we’re going to be focused every inning.”

If it was desperation that fueled Arizona against USC, let desperation reign.

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Scott Terrell desperately wants you to join him on Twitter and Facebook.

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!

The five series all run Friday through Sunday and TWIT-Pac has you covered from the first pitch to the final out. The listed rankings are the average of the five polls which can be found right over here.

#23.6 OSU (18-6 / 0-0)
at #17.6 ARIZONA (19-7 / 1-2)
The only series of the weekend featuring two teams ranked in all five polls. The Cats play five of the nine Pac-10 series on the road this year so taking care of business at home is crucial.

#30.0 Oregon (14-9 / 0-0) at #6.6 ASU (18-6 / 2-1)
The Ducks have a respectable record (and one poll likes them) but they have the lowest team batting average in the Pac-10.

USC (9-16 / 1-2) at #17.2 Cal (17-5 / 3-0)
The worst part about the Trojans’ start is they’ve done it while only playing three games outside California. USC doesn’t leave the state again until April 21.

#16.6 Stanford (11-6 / 0-0) at WSU (10-10 / 0-3)
Stanford is easing into the season, having played a Pac-10 low 17 games. As a result the Cardinal will have midweek games every week the rest of the way.

Washington (7-15 / 0-0) at #20.8 UCLA (11-9 / 2-1)
The Huskies have the worst non-conference record in the league. They got swept at Cal State Fullerton, which isn’t terrible, but they also got swept at Cal State Bakersfield, which isn’t so good.

- – -

The four teams that didn’t play a conference series last week are all on the road against teams that did. Will that add up to extra wins for the home teams?

Arizona leads the Pac-10 in team batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. That made it all the more disappointing when the Cats could only muster two total runs in the final two games against ASU.

If pitching is your thing you need to get out to the ballpark tonight. UA ace Kurt Heyer’s 1.33 earned run average is impressive…until you realize it’s more than three times higher than the guy throwing for the other team.

Oregon State’s Sam Gaviglio is 5-0 with an ERA of 0.39. The two runs he gave up to UC Santa Barbara last week were the first two earned runs he’s allowed all year. Six starts, at least six innings every outing, two complete games (both shutouts) and 51 strikeouts compared to just six walks. So, yeah, he’s having a pretty good year.

The Cats will be starting the same three pitchers they’ve used all year but the UA has a new closer. Bryce Bandilla began the season in that role but since blowing a save at Wichita State on March 15 he has appeared in six games but hasn’t pitched in the 9th inning once.

Junior lefty Matt Chaffee has been finishing games and he hasn’t given up an earned run in his last four appearances (covering 6.2 innings), picking up two saves and a win in that span. Not a bad turnaround for a guy who gave up eight runs in one inning against UNLV.

The game time for Arizona’s Pac-10 home opener is 6 p.m. today, with a 1 p.m. start on Saturday and a noon start on Sunday.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell thinks life is good with Pac-10 baseball in full swing. Stay close to the diamond on Twitter and Facebook.

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.

A Pac-10 co-championship would be a solid accomplishment just two years removed from the Old Lute/KO/ASU Radio Guy era. But why settle for solid? Get as much density as you can.

You want the outright championship. Nine of Lute Olson’s 11 Pac-10 championships were of the solo variety. They taste better.

You want the 14-4 record. The UA has never won this league with a record worse than that. 13-5 has only been good enough to win the Pac-10 twice: 1985 (Lute’s second year) and last season.

You want the undefeated home season. You can’t get back to being elite unless you dominate at home. Send the message that the days of coming into McKale and walking out with easy wins are over.

You want the momentum to build. The time to start playing your best basketball is right now and the Cats are not. The Oregon State contest made it three straight games with subpar outside shooting. A strong performance against Oregon would be a boost heading into tournament season.

You want to build the resume. If it’s true that Arizona’s seed range for the NCAA tournament is 6-7-8 then go out and earn that 6-seed. The Wildcats have been seeded 8, 9 or 10 seven times. Those seven tournament appearances produced one total win.

There is still a lot to play for on Saturday. Even for the Pac-10 champions.

(I mean, the Pac-10 champions!)

- – -

The Arizona baseball team got its first taste of real competition with mixed results. Top-25 Rice came to town and knocked around UA pitching for 19 runs in splitting the two-game series.

As in the previous six games starting pitching wasn’t the problem. The lead was 3-0 when Kurt Heyer left the game on Tuesday and 3-1 when Kyle Simon exited on Wednesday.

All told the bullpen yielded 17 earned runs in 12.1 innings for an unpleasant ERA of 12.41. Take out Bryce Bandilla’s 2.2 innings without being charged with a run and it jumps up to 15.82.

So the Wildcat relievers need some work. The good news is work is available.

None of the three remaining nonconference weekend opponents will scare anyone so the real tests will be the midweek games. The UA travels to play 8-2 UNLV next week and 7-1 Wichita State the following week.

It would be a good idea to get the pen some innings this weekend against Utah Valley so they have more confidence heading to Vegas.

The start of the Pac-10 season (and the ASU series) is only three weeks away.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell is a big fan of conference championships! Flash the #1 sign on Twitter and Facebook!

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.

The Arizona State Sun Devils scored the final seven runs of the game to turn a close contest in a 12-4 blowout victory over Arizona on Saturday night in Tucson.

ASU scored in six consecutive innings, putting up multiple runs in five of the frames. “It got away from us,” Wildcat coach Andy Lopez said. “It turned a pretty good ballgame into a slugfest and that’s not good.”

The game changed in the top of the 6th inning when Arizona ace Kurt Heyer walked his second batter of the inning with two outs. Heyer was lifted in favor of left-hander Bryce Bandilla who promptly gave up a two-run double to Austin Barnes.

“That was a back-breaker,” Lopez said.

The Cats kept it close for five innings. Rafael Valenzuela brought the home team within one when he smacked his fourth home run of the season to right-center field. Later in the inning Steve Selsky tripled and Cole Frenzel walked to put runners on the corners but ASU starter Seth Blair struck out Robert Refsnyder on a pitch in the dirt to end the rally.

The Devils responded with the big two-out hit in the 6th inning and their lead wasn’t threatened again.

“We needed a little bit of a performance out of our pen and we didn’t get it,” Lopez said. “We paid for it tonight.”

Game two of the series is 6 p.m. on Sunday. Arizona’s Kyle Simon (7-4) will face ASU’s Merrill Kelly (9-0) on the mound.

ASU had plenty to bump about Tuesday night.
Photo by Cheryl Evans/The Arizona Republic

The Arizona State Sun Devils came into Tuesday’s non-conference baseball game having won six straight. The Arizona Wildcats entered the contest having lost four of six. This time around there were no surprises as ASU exacted some revenge to the tune of 13-1.

Both schools are taking a break from Pac-10 play this weekend before meeting in Tucson to decide the season series starting May 15. Here’s your complete TWIT-Pac schedule:

#23.2 Cal (27-15 / 11-7) at WSU (22-17 / 6-9)
The Bears are the all-or-nothing team in the league. They have three Pac-10 series sweeps and two Pac-10 series swepts.

#17.8 Oregon (30-15 / 10-8) at OSU (21-17 / 4-11)
The Ducks are ranked and the Beavers are not. That has to really chafe OSU fans after their recent ascent to nouveau-baseball-power status.

#12.4 UCLA (31-10 / 7-8) at Washington (25-19 / 8-7)
There’s no way the Bruins expected to be swept by ASU. I can’t imagine the Huskies expected to sweep Stanford. Don’t even try to guess the outcome of this one.

BYU (19-23) at #2.6 ASU (39-5 / 14-4)
The Devils are taking it easy this weekend and only playing two games. They must be worn out after scoring all those runs against Arizona.

Cal State Bakersfield (19-23) at #23.2 ARIZONA (29-14 / 9-9)
CSB is an independent, which means they play a lot of road games, which means their Roadrunners nickname is appropriate. Bakersfield split four games at Washington State earlier in the season but hasn’t won a road series all year.

#30.8 Stanford (23-17 / 10-8) at Long Beach State (20-21)
This season LBSU has played Oregon (0-1), UCLA (1-1), Arizona (2-0), USC (0-1), Washington (1-2), and OSU (2-1). The Dirtbags have more Pac-10 wins than the Beavers and Trojans.

Utah (19-21) at USC (20-24 / 5-13)
After taking care of Arizona the Trojans beat a ranked Irvine team on Tuesday. They’re not going to take it anymore.

An interesting note from Tuesday’s thumping in Tempe is that Nick Cunningham started his first game for the Wildcats. This seems to indicate that Bryce Bandilla’s season has come full circle and he is back in the closer’s role. Can the Thrilla find success at the end of games or is he best suited for life in the middle?

If you are Arizona you need to take these Bakersfield games very seriously. The UA badly needs some wins. The Wildcat hitters badly need to see the ball flying off the bat. Take advantage of a road-weary team and post some double-digit scoring games.

The next nine games are at home. It’s time for the Cats to get better.

If you’re wondering where those cool one-decimal-place numbers in the schedule came from, they’re each team’s average in the five pools:

School	BAS	COL	NAT	USA	RIV	Avg	Points	Previous	CBCRDI
ASU	3	2	3	2	3	2.6	142	142	0
UCLA	12	15	13	12	10	12.4	93	123	-30
Oregon	15	19	21	19	15	17.8	66	49	+17
ARIZONA	23	26	20	22	25	23.2	39	60	-21
Cal	21	18	29	26	22	23.2	39	31	+8
Stanford	-	-	30	-	-	30.8	1	49	-48
OSU	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	5	-5

BAS = Baseball America
COL = Collegiate Baseball
NAT = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
USA = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll
RIV = Rivals.com
CBCRDI = College Baseball Cumulative Rankings Directional Indicator

And the updated Pac-10 standings:

Place	School	Wins	Loses	Games Back
1	ASU	14	4	-
2	Cal	11	7	3
3-T	Oregon	10	8	4
3-T	Stanford	10	8	4
5	Washington	8	7	4.5
6	ARIZONA	9	9	5
7	UCLA	7	8	5.5
8	WSU	6	9	6.5
9	OSU	4	11	8.5
10	USC	5	13	9

That’s right, UCLA is 10th in one poll and 7th in the Pac-10.

Here’s what took place last weekend:

ASU won all three at UCLA. Scores: 5-1, 6-1, 12-3
Place the order with the engraver; the Sun Devils are going to win their 4th straight Pac-10 championship. Good hitting put a beating on good pitching in L.A. The Devils had seven different innings with multiple runs.

Cal won all three vs. OSU. Scores: 11-3, 14-4, 9-3
The Beavers are now missing both axles.

Oregon won two of three vs. WSU. Scores: 2-3, 6-0, 6-1
When your Sunday starter is 7-0 with a 2.87 ERA you know you’ve got a good pitching staff.

USC won two of three vs. ARIZONA. Scores: 6-0, 7-5, 7-9
The score in the first game was Kurt Heyer’s record before he faced 1-7 Andrew Triggs.

Washington won all three vs. Stanford. Scores: 4-2, 8-1, 4-3 (15 inn.)
The only thing worse than being swept is being swept after losing the third game in 15 innings. It’s like working five hours of overtime and then having your paycheck bounce.

Game times for the Wildcats are 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 12 noon on Sunday.

So far this academic year we’ve seen Mike Stoops and the Arizona football team end a seven-game losing streak to USC, and Sean Miller and UA basketball steal a game from USC thanks to a foul and three free throws with two-tenths of a second left.

USC got a little bit of revenge on the baseball field.

As feared Arizona did not respond well to another road trip and as a result the last-place Trojans won their first Pac-10 series of the year.

It was the same problem as against UCLA. The Cat bats have stopped hitting. The team’s bread-and-butter has gone stale. Here’s a look at how the top four hitters in the UA lineup have fared the last few weeks:

	Games	Rickard	Valenzuela	Bandy	Selsky
4/9 – 4/18	7	.241	.448	.360	.429
4/19 – 5/2	7	.179	.207	.192	.231

It’s not a surprise the team won six of the first group of seven games but only three of the last seven.

Joey Rickard’s slump actually extends back another weekend when he went 1-for-11 at Cal, bringing his slide to 13-for-68 (.191) in his last 17 games. It’s really hard when the guy who comes up more than anyone isn’t getting on base.

What can you do about it? There are three options: 1) Do nothing and hope things turn around, 2) Play the same guys but juggle the lineup, or 3) See what you’ve got on the bench.

Option 3 may be what’s in store as freshman Cole Frenzel got three starts and picked up five hits over the weekend. You also saw Andy Lopez bringing in pinch-hitters for Rickard and Valenzuela as the Cats tried to come from behind on Sunday, and the moves paid off as Josh Garcia had the huge hit to tie the game in the 8th.

Another interesting development has been the rollercoaster that is Bryce “The Thrilla” Bandilla’s season. He began the season as the designated closer but blew his first save opportunity. He had a couple good middle relief outings and got moved into the starting rotation. He had one good start mixed in with five bad ones and got moved back out of the rotation. Now he’s an ironman reliever, having appeared in seven of the UA’s last eight games, picking up two wins with three times as many strikeouts as walks.

Here’s how Bandilla the starter compares with Bandilla of the bullpen:

"Please don't make me start again."
Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

	ERA	Walks	Strikeouts
Starter	5.81	16	17
Reliever	3.34	8	36

I think it’s safe to say he’s going to stay put.

Just like last week you have the give the team credit for coming back to win the third game after losing the series by Saturday. There’s a big difference – in the standings as well as in perception – between losing two out of three and getting swept. Ask UCLA and Stanford how hard it can be to avoid a third straight loss.

But credit only gets you so far before you have to start making payments with actual wins. How much did losing this series hurt? Entering this week the Cats had a top-15 RPI and were projected as a 2-seed, the equivalent of a 5-to-8-seed in basketball.

Now Arizona will take a tumble in the rankings and RPI and the team will slide closer to the bubble. It means there’s pressure to sweep the Cal State Bakersfield series. It means the ASU game on Tuesday is no longer a nothing-to-lose affair.

Dropping a pair in L.A. was definitely a step back, but an opportunity for instant redemption awaits. The best way to make up for losing to the worst team in the conference is by beating the undisputed best team in the conference.

Especially when you’ve already beaten them once.

That’s how you introduce yourself to a rivalry.

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team beat #1 ASU Tuesday night by a score of 4-2 to snap the Sun Devils’ 28-game home winning streak, and get the UA’s week of top-10 action off to an impressive start.

Surprise!
Photo by Pat Shannahan/The Arizona Republic

It was a night of surprises for the Cats. Freshman Cory Bernard (who had a key pinch-hit single in the WSU comeback) was scheduled to make his first career start on the mound but injured his arm during warm-ups. Andy Lopez was forced to dust off Daniel Workman for his first appearance in a month.

How do you think that turned out? How about 6 1/3 strong innings, holding the top-ranked team in the land to two runs and five hits without issuing a walk?

Then you turn the game over to Bryce Bandilla, a guy who just lost his spot in the starting rotation due to his near-5 ERA. What do you think happened? An inning-and-two-thirds of shutout ball, naturally.

But you’ve got to finish the game, and we know all about this team’s lack of a reliable closer. The result? Freshmen Augey Bill and Nick Cunningham combine to pitch a hitless ninth to seal the deal.

When you haven’t won on a particular field in three years you don’t have high expectations. When you’re facing a team that is 22-0 on said field, and you’re starting six guys who have never played said team on said field, you don’t have any expectations.

Surprise! The New Cats are undefeated against ASU.

- – - – -

On to the Pac-10 results from last weekend!

ARIZONA won all three vs. WSU. Scores: 5-3, 13-6, 12-11
Blow a three-run lead in the 9th against the Ducks; overcome a three-run deficit in the 9th against the Cougars. Leaving a UA game early is not advised.

I've got this hunch...
Photo by Pat Shannahan/The Arizona Republic

ASU won all three vs. USC.
Scores: 5-4, 5-3, 14-6
The Devils took care of business at home, but for some reason I think they’re going to be in trouble against Arizona on Tuesday.

Cal won two of three vs. Washington. Scores: 3-7, 3-2, 9-7
The Bears did what they had to do to stay in the championship discussion. Now we’ll find out what they’ve really got.

Stanford won all three at OSU. Scores: 14-6, 5-3 (10 inn.), 10-7
Wow. The Cardinal got the statement it was looking for. The Beavers got crossed off the list of contenders.

Oregon won two of three at UCLA. Scores: 5-4, 8-4, 1-5
Wow, part 2. The Bruins were 21-0 heading into Pac-10 play. They’re 6-5 since.

Three sweeps in the five series and all three of the sweepers look good in the standings:

Place	School	Wins	Loses	Games Back
1	ASU	9	3	-
2	Cal	8	4	1
3-T	ARIZONA	7	5	2
3-T	Stanford	7	5	2
5	UCLA	5	4	2.5
6	Oregon	6	6	3
7	Washington	4	5	3.5
8-T	OSU	3	6	4.5
8-T	WSU	3	6	4.5
10	USC	2	10	7

The top two teams and the last team stayed put but everyone else moved. Will the deck get shuffled again this week?

Time for the rankings, plus a new-new stat!

School	BAS	COL	NAT	USA	RIV	Avg	Points	Previous	CBCRDI
ASU	1	1	1	1	1	1.0	150	145	+5
UCLA	5	8	7	6	5	6.2	124	145	-21
ARIZONA	17	18	16	17	15	16.6	72	38	+34
Cal	15	15	25	23	17	19.0	60	41	+19
Oregon	18	23	-	25	18	23.0	40	0	+40
OSU	-	25	22	22	-	26.2	24	72	-48
Stanford	22	22	30	-	-	27.2	19	0	+19
WSU	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	3	-3

BAS = Baseball America
COL = Collegiate Baseball
NAT = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
USA = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll
RIV = Rivals.com
CBCRDI = College Baseball Cumulative Rankings Directional Indicator

The new stat is called the “average ranking” (sometimes it’s OK to go with the obvious). You get a 31 if you’re not ranked in a particular poll and then you take the average of the five rankings. Now instead of saying Arizona is ranked #17/18/16/17/15 you can say the Cats are ranked #16.6. I am here to serve.

Oregon tied the CBCRDI record with a 40-point jump. Their cross-state rivals set the plummet mark with their 48-point freefall. ASU posted a perfect score for the second time in three weeks.

But on Tuesday the perfect score was 4-2.

On the hit TV show “Lost” the survivors of a plane crash end up on a mysterious island. There’s time travel involved, a smoke monster, and dead people who might not be dead. The bottom line is nobody knows exactly where they are.

The same could be said for Arizona Wildcats Baseball.

For all intents and purposes, 2009 was a lost season for coach Andy Lopez and the Cats. Arizona finished with a losing conference record and missed the NCAA tournament for just the second time in seven years. But that’s not the problem. When you lose a bunch of players to graduation and the MLB draft you’re going to take a step back.

The UA had a peak year in 2005 and then missed the postseason in 2006. But the team went on to finish second in the Pac-10 in 2007 and came within one game of the College World Series in ’08. The freshmen on that losing team grew up together and left as winners.

The problem with last year’s young players is that – like the characters on “Lost” – a lot of them didn’t come back.

Exactly two-thirds of this year’s roster wasn’t here a year ago. Only 11 players from last year’s 33-man squad have returned, and only eight of them saw significant playing time. It would be like killing off Jack, Kate and Sawyer and turning the franchise over to Bernard and Daniel Faraday’s mom.

You think Sawyer can hit a curve ball?
Photo by Norman Shapiro, The Honolulu Advertiser

And it’s not like last year’s team was loaded with veterans. Seven freshman and three sophomores from ’09 are gone. Those ten underclassmen combined to produce 45 extra-base hits and 40 strikeouts. It wasn’t hard to flashforward and see a few stars.

So who is back? At the plate it comes down to three guys: junior IF Bryce Ortega, sophomore C Jett Bandy, and sophomore OF Steve Selsky. That’s it, which is too bad since last year’s team led the Pac-10 in hitting.

The good news is all three of the old-timers hit .299+ last year with on-base percentages north of .385. Selsky is the power hitter with seven home runs a year ago, but Bandy had 21 doubles so the hope is The Jett can develop into a middle-of-the-order run producer.

Bandy and his chest-bumping skills are back.
Photo by Val Cañez, The Tucson Citizen

On the mound there’s good news and bad news. The good news is the six returning pitchers combined for 26 starts last year. The bad news is none of them were very good. The Wildcat pitching staff as a whole was poor in 2009. Like 9th-place-in-the-Pac-10 poor. Great Recession poor.

Of the returnees only Daniel Workman finished with an ERA under 4 and Kyle Simon and Bryce Bandilla couldn’t keep theirs on the good side of 6. But, hey, everyone’s undefeated right now and you hope someone can explode on the scene like Preston Guilmet in 2007.

Workman, a junior right-hander, and Simon, a sophomore righty, will be in the starting rotation this weekend. Bandilla, a left-handed sophomore, will be the closer. The man on the mound opening night will be true-freshman right-hander Kurt Heyer. He’s from Huntington Beach and his middle name is Wolfgang. All that means is I can read his bio.

Please be great.

So the 2010 BatCats are a big mystery. Not in a which-parallel-universe-is-real kind of way, but in a which-way-is-our-program-headed kind of way.

One way we know the team isn’t headed is out of town. Arizona takes full advantage of its “winter” weather and opens the season with 26 straight home games. If you’re going to break in a young team that’s the way to do it.

You have to keep win-total expectations low in a year like this. Root for the team to play with passion. Root for the team to be fundamentally sound. Root for the young guys to improve as the year goes on and root for signs of stardom.

And, last of all, root for the Cats to finally beat the Others.