Wildcats Own Omaha.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

All year the University of Arizona baseball team broke its huddles with a call of “Omaha!” Once they got to Omaha the cry switched to “Win it!”

It has been won.

The Arizona Wildcats are the 2012 College World Series champions, completing a perfect 10-0 run through the NCAA tournament.

I don’t believe it. I don’t believe a team this thin just won a month-long tournament. Swept the tournament. Never trailed at the College World Series.

The three UA starting pitchers combined to throw 85 of the 94 innings in the postseason. The other 27 outs were recorded by two guys.

Tyler Parmenter had a single at-bat in one of the regional blowouts. Every other swing was taken by 10 players.

It was Mathew Troupe – half of that two-man bullpen – who was on the mound when the dogpile started. And that one bench player? All Brandon Dixon did was drive in the championship-winning run.

A 10-game streak to win a title, using just 15 players. Somewhere Kevin O’Neill is wondering if he chose the wrong sport.

The Look was legitimate. The domination continued. South Carolina had its back against the wall and only got three hits Monday night. The Gamecocks scored just one run – and if Dixon throws home on that grounder in the seventh maybe they don’t score at all – off a guy who hadn’t pitched in three full weeks.

This isn’t to diminish what South Carolina did. Not one bit. That team set record after record during the best three-year run at the CWS in 38 years. It just makes Arizona’s performance even more remarkable. The Cats faced the greatest champion the sport has seen in almost four decades and completely shut them down.

Two total runs in the two-game championship series sweep, and Kurt Heyer didn’t have to do anything but show off his goatee.

Arizona coach Andy Lopez continued to push the right button every single time. Bring back Heyer on short rest? Take down Florida State a second time to sweep the bracket. Save Heyer and go with James Farris against South Carolina? 7 2/3 innings of two-hit ball.

(By the way, the only UA baseball replica jersey you could buy all year? The same blue one the Cats happened to be wearing Monday night. I’m going to say the coach was somehow behind that too.)

Lopez now goes from a guy who won a title with a one-hit-wonder Pepperdine club, or who couldn’t win the Pac-12, to just the second coach to win the College World Series at two different schools. Last year he was recruiting players who weren’t even born the first time he won a championship. Now he’s the face of a program that combines the foundation of tradition with the buzz of a new home and the shine of a big new trophy.

He also proved the authenticity of two historical truisms:

When Arizona hosts a regional, Andy Lopez wins the national championship.

Every other time the Wildcats go to the College World Series they win it all.

Believe it.

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Scott Terrell thanks everyone who followed the updates on Twitter and Facebook!

Florida State didn’t get this call and Arizona quickly got control.
Photo by Matt Ryerson-US PRESSWIRE

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

The Arizona Wildcats have proven the shortest path from the start of the NCAA tournament to the College World Series Championship Finals is win, win, win, win, win, win, win win.

The UA beat No. 3 Florida State for the second time in seven days to sweep their bracket and move two wins away from the program’s fourth national championship.

Omaha was supposed to be where the UA got exposed as being too thin. Too many games, too many quality opponents, not enough depth.

The book on the 2012 Wildcats was to outlast them. Get into their bullpen. Extend the series. But Kurt Heyer and Konner Wade have kept the bullpen in the background, and you can’t extend the Cats if you can’t beat them. Teams are now 0-8 in that department this postseason.

Rob Refsnyder and the Wildcats added the long ball to their bag of tricks.
Photo by Bruce Thorson-US PRESSWIRE

Thursday’s bracket-clincher against the Seminoles hinged on two early plays. Sherman Johnson, the very first batter of the game, stroked a hit to left and tried to stretch it into a double. Replays showed Johnson’s hand hit the bag before Trent Gilbert’s tag but FSU didn’t get the call. Instead of the leadoff man in scoring position Florida State had the bases empty and did nothing else that inning.

In the bottom half of the frame, after a leadoff single, Johnny Field tapped one back to the mound. But instead of a bases-clearing double play, Brandon Leibrandt’s throw sailed into center field and FSU left the door open for Arizona.

The Wildcats, as they’ve done this entire tournament, burst through that door with a flurry of hits and Florida State never recovered.

Who needs a second string when your first string is playing out of its collective mind?

Conventional wisdom says you play your bench all year to keep everyone sharp and ready. You’re also supposed to limit your starting pitchers’ innings to preserve their arms.

Andy Lopez’s bench consists of one guy. Brandon Dixon comes into every game at some point to play first base. There are no pinch hitters.

On the mound the philosophy is simple: Throw the best arm available and keep him out there as long as he’s effective. That means, since the start of the super regional, the rotation has gone Heyer, Wade, Heyer, Wade, Heyer.

Reliever Stephen Manthei, tied for the team lead in appearances, has pitched one time since May 6. James Farris, the team’s third starter, hasn’t pitched in three weeks. And he threw a complete game his last time out.

Lopez may not have a lot of buttons to work with but he keeps pushing the right ones.

Frank Sancet took the UA to the championship game at the CWS three times in the 1950s and ‘60s and lost each time. Jerry Kindall made it three times in the ‘70s and ‘80s and brought home the trophy each time. Lopez went one-for-one with Pepperdine in the ’90s and will now make his first attempt with Arizona.

Only one coach, Augie Garrido at Cal State Fullerton and Texas, has ever won the College World Series at two different schools.

Arizona will face its biggest challenge in the Championship Finals, and that’s the way it should be. The Cats will either face a South Carolina team with upperclassmen who already own two national championships rings, or an Arkansas squad that beat the team with two national championship rings.

What these Wildcats will not face are any more depth tests. Lopez has managed to treat every portion of this tournament like a short series and just one short series remains. It’ll be Wade in game one. It’ll probably be Heyer in game two.

Will there be a game three? This team hasn’t taken the long way yet.

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Scott Terrell may not be able to promise depth but he will keep the live updates going. Follow on Twitter and Like on Facebook.

Andy Lopez wants Kurt Heyer to get this done right now.
Photo by Matt Ryerson-US PRESSWIRE

And then there was one.

Eleven Pac-12 baseball teams started the season. Five made the NCAA tournament. Four won their regional. Two advanced to the College World Series.

Then, with UCLA falling to Florida State and being eliminated in the CWS quarterfinals Tuesday night, only the Arizona Wildcats remain.

This Week in the Pac-12 (TWIT-Pac) will have to carry on with a single squad extending the season for the conference. It does make typing the schedule easier though. All times, as usual, are Arizona/Pacific:

Arizona (45-17) vs. Florida State (50-16)
Today, 2 p.m.
TV: ESPN2 / ESPN3.com

Arizona vs. Florida State (if necessary)
Tomorrow, 2 p.m. or 6 p.m.
TV: ESPN2 / ESPN3.com

The scenarios are very simple. If the Wildcats win they advance to the College World Series Championship Finals. If FSU wins today the same two teams play a do-or-die game tomorrow for the right to advance to the finals.

The best-of-three series to determine the national championship begins Sunday night against Arkansas, South Carolina or Kent State.

Continuing the simplicity theme, coaches Andy Lopez and Mike Martin are starting the same pitchers that squared off when these two teams first met: the UA’s Kurt Heyer (7 2/3 innings pitched Friday, 6 hits, 1 earned run, 8 strikeouts, 3 walks) and FSU’s Brandon Leibrandt (4 1/3 IP, 6 hits, 2 earned runs, 5 K’s and no walks).

Both hurlers pitched well in the opener but the advantage shifts to the hitters the more times they face a guy. Who can best adjust to what they learned six days ago?

It has only been four days since Arizona last played but it feels like a week and a half. Shortstop Alex Mejia talked about the team preparing like this is the start of a new weekend series. The difference is instead of going to classes or traveling to a new city between games the team has been living in the same hotel, itching to get back on the field.

If you do look at it like a weekend series, Arizona already has a 1-0 lead and that’s a great place to be. Since the Championship Finals format began in 2003, 18 teams started 2-0 at the CWS and 14 of them advanced to the finals. Ten of the 14 got there by winning the third game to complete the sweep of their half of the bracket.

The flip side is only half of the eight 2-0 teams that lost the third game recovered to win the fourth game. All the more reason for Lopez to ignore my advice and start Heyer to go for the kill.

(It’s worth noting that Rice was responsible for half of the instances when a 2-0 team was unable to advance, failing to seal the deal in both 2006 and 2007. Maybe your odds go down when your school name is edible.)

As far as what to watch for today I was going to research the Seminoles’ walk numbers but Arizona play-by-play man Brian Jeffries summed it up better than I ever could:

Last 57 innings FSU has drawn 42 walks. Last 57 innings UA staff has issued 4 walks. Guess what a big key is (today)?

Heyer needs to throw strikes but also hit his spots within the strike zone against the top four hitters in the FSU batting order. Florida State had nine hits against UCLA and Sherman Johnson, Devon Travis, James Ramsey and Jayce Boyd combined to produce seven of them. Finishing off innings before turning the lineup over will be big.

At the plate the Wildcats struck out 10 times in the 12 innings Friday night which is uncharacteristic for this team. The UA needs to put the ball in play, keep pressure on the Seminole defense and work that momentum magic when a couple guys get on.

If the Cats can take the comfort of knowing they have tomorrow and use it to play like there’s no tomorrow, they stand a great chance of advancing beyond tomorrow.

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Scott Terrell will have live updates today on Twitter with recaps on Facebook.

A lot of Wildcat dads wanted to embrace Konner Wade on Father’s Day.
Photo by Bruce Thorson-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team came into the College World Series as a team that had already accomplished a long list of goals.

Now, after winning two games in Omaha, the UA has The Look. That’s capital T – The – capital L – Look, as in dangerous enough to win the big capital C.

Friday night’s game had a bit of magic with Arizona catching multiple Florida State runners on the base paths in the extra innings then pushing across the game-winner after getting shut down by FSU’s closer for three frames.

Games like that can easily end up as a team’s lone highlight in Omaha. Following it up with another – and more convincing – victory definitely raised a lot of eyebrows.

Winning two College World Series games is hard enough in itself. Arizona hadn’t won twice at the CWS since 1986.

No, this wasn’t just winning two games in Omaha. It was beating a UCLA team that was one of the few squads that could say it was hotter than Arizona. The UA had won seven straight and 14 of 16; UCLA had won 10 in a row and 17 or 18. Arizona played a 10-inning game in its Super Regional; UCLA only gave up three total runs.

And Konner Wade didn’t just beat the Bruins; he dominated them.

UCLA only had one threat Sunday night. The Bruins loaded the bases after two were out in the top of the fifth inning but failed to score. Outside that frame UCLA put exactly two runners on base: a two-out infield single in the sixth and a single with one away in the eighth inning that was erased by a double play on the very next pitch.

So in eight of the nine innings UCLA never put two men on base and never put a runner in scoring position. No extra base hits and no walks. Not even deep fly balls. Besides going to pick up a handful of grounders, none of the Wildcat outfielders ever had to break out of a trot.

Then again, Arizona only had one threat too. The UA went down in order in six of eight at-bats. The seventh was a one-out single and a sac bunt. The difference is the Cats took full advantage of their one opportunity. When two guys got hits in the fourth inning the next three all followed with hits to score four runs.

That’s how this team has operated all year. There aren’t any first- or second-round picks in the middle of the order waiting to hit one 400 feet. It’s about stringing hits together, taking advantage of mid-inning momentum and making a pitcher pay when he gets a little rattled.

Because there aren’t the elite draft picks and because Arizona wasn’t a national seed this is a coming-out party for this team. The national media and fans are seeing, hey, Kurt Heyer and Konner Wade are strong starting pitchers. Alex Mejia and Seth Mejias-Brean are stout in the field. Rob Refsnyder and Bobby Brown are RBI machines.

It reminds you of two basketball seasons ago when Derrick Williams exploded on the national scene by dismantling Duke, allowing Sean Miller to talk about what people had been missing all year.

Arizona Baseball will now try to do what Williams couldn’t. The 2011 UA hoops team bowed out short of the Final Four and the championship game. The 2012 BatCats need one more win to get to the final two and three more wins to take the whole thing.

Getting that next one will not be easy. It’s double elimination for a reason. The winner of the UCLA/Florida State game will have the taste of winning back in its mouth. Just two years ago South Carolina made its first national championship run out of the losers’ bracket.

Who do you start on the mound on Thursday? The regular rotation says its James Farris’ turn but with the extra rest you could come back with Heyer.

Me? I stick with Farris. That way Heyer’s next start will be either Arizona’s first elimination game or the opening game of the championship series. Both scenarios are the exact type of contest you want started by your rested ace.

But there’s no way I question anything Andy Lopez chooses to do at this point. He could put one of his bearded sons out there and I’d expect seven strong innings.

Every button Lopez has pushed has worked for six weeks and counting. If you watch the videos of his team workouts or postgame huddles you hear coaching clichés, rah-rah talk and team chants. But you also hear a single voice, and a team listening in unison.

Lopez has his players believing in him, believing in themselves and believing in each other. They are playing really well. They are on a major roll.

They have The Look of a team ready to keep winning.

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Scott Terrell wants you to take A Look at the College World Series updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Arizona is dreaming of another trophy.
Photo by Anthony Gimino, TucsonCitizen.com

Fact: Starting in 1970, every other time the Arizona Wildcats baseball team made it to the College World Series, the UA won it all.

Arizona last went to the CWS in 2004. The Cats did not win the national championship. Does this team have what it takes to continue the decades-long trend?

UCLA joins Arizona as Pac-12 representatives in Omaha. TWIT-Pac joins you and the schedule (all times Arizona/Pacific):

#1 ARIZONA (43-17) vs. #1 Florida State (48-15)
Fri. 6 p.m.
TV: ESPN2 / ESPN3.com

#1 UCLA (47-14) vs. #4 Stony Brook (52-13)
Fri. 2 p.m.
TV: ESPN2 / ESPN3.com

The other four teams don’t matter, at least not for another nine days. No one from Bracket 1 (a.k.a., the Pac Bracket) will face anyone from Bracket 2 (the SEC Bracket) until the championship series. The goal is to survive your four-team bracket and then see who shows up on the other side.

Here’s the rest of the schedule for Bracket 1:

0-1 team vs. 0-1 team
Sun. 2 p.m.
TV: ESPN2 / ESPN3.com

1-0 team vs. 1-0 team
Sun. 6 p.m.
TV: ESPN2 / ESPN3.com

–

1-1 team vs. 1-1 team
Tue. 5 p.m.
TV: ESPN / ESPN3.com

–

2-0 team vs. 2-1 team
Thu. 2 p.m.
TV: ESPN2 / ESPN3.com

–

2-1 team vs. 3-1 team (if necessary)
Fri. June 22, 2 p.m. or 6 p.m.
TV: ESPN2 / ESPN3.com

* * *

With Oregon falling to Kent State at home and Stanford getting knocked around in Tallahassee, the Pac-12 failed in its bid to get more than two teams into the CWS for just the second time.

The Pac-12 had three participants in 1988 (ASU, Cal, Stanford). Arizona, ASU and WSU all made the College World Series in 1976 but the Wildcats and Sun Devils were still members of the WAC at the time.

* * *

So here we go. The BatCats have been working toward this all season. The juniors have been building toward this for three years. UA coach Andy Lopez has been waiting eight years. And Bobby Brown, according to Lopez, has been waiting since about 1971.

The 2004 Arizona College World Series team was a year away and exited in just three games. The 2005 squad was better (more wins, higher Pac-12 finish) but got a tougher draw and couldn’t get out of the regional round. It just shows the importance of seizing the moment to strike while the iron window’s open.

This year’s team is not a year away. It is peaking in the right season, at the right time.

Since the best-case scenario has worked out well for the Cats the past five weeks we may as well spell it out: Kurt Heyer wins today, Konner Wade wins Sunday, James Farris wins Thursday, and Heyer starts game one of the championship series.

If the UA has to come out of the losers’ bracket you could bring back Heyer on Thursday (one day short of normal rest) and Wade on Friday (two days short of normal rest) with a rested Farris ready to start the championship series opener.

At this point every team is exceptional and every team is hot. You can play your best and still lose. But it’s much better to play your best and simply get beat than to play poorly and always wonder what could have been.

I do expect Arizona to play well. I expect Heyer to give up fewer than 17 hits. I expect the UA’s potent lineup to continue to put good swings on the ball and hit line drives. I expect the crowds to be impressed with Alex Mejia’s defense. I expect people to be surprised at short Johnny Field’s big bat. I expect exciting games.

And I expect Wildcat Universe to be proud of this team when its season is complete.

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Scott Terrell will have College World Series updates on Twitter and Facebook.

From the first pitch at Hi Corbett the plan was for a season like this.
Photo by Anthony Gimino, TucsonCitizen.com

They say if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. The point being, we have no idea what the future holds so to make grandiose plans and assume everything will go exactly how we want is an exercise in futility.

But sometimes – every once in a while – a plan works perfectly. Exhibit A: the 2012 Arizona Wildcats baseball season.

I can’t even plan a Saturday. I’ll get to the end of a week with a mountain of tasks to complete so I’ll start a list:

1. Wake up
2. Exercise

And that’s about as far as I get before the plan is shot.

UA athletic director Greg Byrne had a plan. Head coach Andy Lopez had a plan. Their to-do list for the 2011-2012 season looked like this:

1. Negotiate use of Hi Corbett Field
2. Create buzz with announcement
3. Address concerns of dissenters (including Hall of Fame former coaches)
4. Enhance game day experience
5. Win lots of games
6. Win Pac-12 championship
7. Host Regional
8. Host Super Regional
9. Go to College World Series

And they pulled it off. Every last bit of it.

Lopez was quick to point to the change in venue as the key element in this magical run. “I don’t believe we could have done what we’re doing,” he said, “unless we’re at Hi Corbett with that kind of crowd.”

“I can’t thank Greg Byrne and the administration enough for moving us here.”

It takes courage to uproot decades of tradition to aim for something bigger. It takes the timing of an experienced team primed for a peak season. It takes an alignment of circumstances like spring training leaving Tucson, Arizona State going on probation, Oregon faltering the final weekend and North Carolina getting upset by St. John’s.

No matter how much help you get, however, you still need to execute on the field. Big crowds don’t ensure you get the bunt down in a tight game. Playing at home doesn’t guarantee throwing strikes or producing two-out RBIs.

No moment sums it up better than the double play in the ninth inning of Saturday’s game. St. John’s had two men on with nobody out and the tying run on deck. Konner Wade threw a low strike to the Red Storm’s best hitter, Jeremy Baltz, who grounded sharply to third base. Seth Mejias-Brean fielded it cleanly and didn’t hesitate in making an accurate throw to second. Trent Gilbert made the pivot, defensive replacement Brandon Dixon made the catch at first and the bases were empty with disaster averted.

“I was just playing one pitch at a time, trying to go through it in my head, if the ball’s hit to me make the easy play and turn two,” Mejias-Brean said. “I didn’t really think too much how big of a play it was.”

That kind of calm execution got the Wildcats through what Lopez called the grind of the regular season and early rounds of the tournament, and it should serve them well during the reward that is the College World Series.

The UA coach likes his team’s chances in Omaha. “The goal once we get there will be to stay around for two weeks,” Lopez said. “We’ll try to stick around a couple weeks for sure.”

You won’t see me laughing at that plan.

* * *

Bonus quotes from the celebratory Super Regional press conference:

Andy Lopez

On coming up just short in the College Station Regional last year
“I told my wife if we can get to the right regional we got a chance this year. And, boy, we were in the right regional: Tucson.”

On why this CWS run is special to him
“I’ve had two sons go with me to Omaha three, four times now as batboys and now… I’ve got to get them to shave. They’ve got full beards and they’re going to be a part of a college program in the College World Series so that’s pretty neat.”

On his team’s chances
“I like them for two real intangible reasons: One is they like to compete. The guys I suit up with like to compete. And two is…uh…they like to compete.”

On fifth-year senior Bobby Brown’s experience
“Bobby, you’ve been here since… How was it playing for Coach Sancet?”

On destiny and pachyderms
“I told them the story (about) when I was in L.A. and a man got crushed by an elephant in Culver City. Those of you that know L.A., it’s Culver City. How does an elephant crush a man in Culver City?! If it’s supposed to happen it’s going to happen. You just have to work hard and get after it.”

Konner Wade

When asked if he remembered throwing a no-walks complete game before
(Pause)
(More pause)
“No.”

(By the way, if you would have told me before the Tucson Super Regional that Wade was going to give up 11 fewer hits than Kurt Heyer I would’ve said you were crazy.)

(Then I would’ve said, “Wait, you mean Wade is going to throw a negative-four-hitter??”)

Seth Mejias-Brean

On getting to Omaha with his classmates
“I’m really close with this junior class. We deserve it. We’ve worked hard. We’ve worked all three years and it’s going to be fun up there.”

On choosing baseball over football out of high school
“College football would’ve been a lot more work.”

Lopez: “What?! We’ll work on that on Monday.”

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Scott Terrell plans on watching this team as long as possible. Plan on following along on Twitter and Facebook.

The Cats and Devils collided in the Pac-10 for more than three decades.
Photo by David Wallace/The Arizona Republic

The Pac-12 is 234 years and 362 days younger than the United States.

Sounds like the perfect time to break down the Pac-10’s baseball history!

After digesting football, basketball, and more football it’s time for your data dessert.

This is where we’re reminded that college baseball is a non-revenue sport. Dating back to the 1920s the conference was split into North and South divisions to save on travel costs. This structure continued when the Arizona schools were added, with the four Pacific Northwest schools in the North division and the “6-Pac” in the South.

Here are those standings from 1979 through 1998:

When Oregon cut its baseball program following the 1981 season the remaining three North teams rounded up some neighborhood friends and continued to call it Pac-10 baseball. As a result WSU winning 61% of its conference games isn’t nearly as impressive as Stanford winning 61% of its conference games.

(For those following along with the Pac-10 media guide, good news! Oregon State’s three missing losses from 1994 have been found. I will now turn my attention to larger pursuits.)

In 1999 the Pac-10 threw fiscal caution to the wind and formed a single, majestic collegiate baseball league. A decade later Oregon got the hardball itch and made the Pac-10 an actual 10. To add a little symmetry, the Ducks played in the first three years and the last three years of the Pac-10.

After the merge the composite standings look like this:

Add them together and you get 33 years’ worth of baseball:

(Silly me, I left the conference championship data out of the original post. Here it is now.)

For the first 16 years of the Pac-10 the winner of each division received a share of the conference championship. In each of the final 13 years after the merge a single champion was crowned, except in 2000 when three teams tied for first. In the four years in between, 1995-1998, the two division winners met in a championship series with the winner earning the outright Pac-10 title. Add it all up and it looks like this:

Wazzu really misses the Pac-10 North.

Since the merge ASU leads the way with the Pat Murphy-fueled four-peat from 2007-’10 and a share of the 2000 title. Stanford won three outright championships and a share of that 2000 title as well.

Throw in USC’s back-to-back crowns in ’01 and ’02, and UCLA winning the third share in 2000 plus the final Pac-10 title this year, and the entire Pac-10 North (minus Oregon State) misses the Pac-10 North.

(And now back to your regularly scheduled post.)

Just five wins separate Stanford and Arizona State atop the standings. It’s no surprise those two lead the way when it comes to trips to Omaha:

That representation has resulted in hoisting a number of trophies:

Four different members of the Pac-10 with multiple titles. That’s getting it done right there.

As an added bonus, since South Carolina just went back-to-back to join this club, here is the complete list of schools with more than one college baseball national championship:

(A Texas fan once tried to tell me the Longhorns were “the Yankees of college” because they’ve been to the College World Series more than anyone. I told him the Yankees aren’t famous for losing the World Series. That makes Texas the Brooklyn Dodgers of college.)

Unlike the last time the conference expanded, the new guys aren’t bringing any baseball tradition. Utah has been to the College World Series once (in 1951) and Colorado never made it before discontinuing their program in 1980 (get the itch, Buffs!).

For the time being the Pac-12 will have 11 teams. ¡Viva Paco Once!

- – - – -

Scott Terrell would never split his love for baseball into divisions. Unify on Twitter and Facebook.

ASU had little to leap about at the CWS.
Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

The Arizona State Sun Devils just completed a historic run at the College World Series.

They became the first #1 overall seed to go winless.

The CWS is tough. ASU will just have to give it another go next year…the 30th anniversary of the Devils’ last national championship.

Thirty years is a long time. Can you truly be considered a national power if you haven’t won a championship in three decades?

The ASU baseball program is certainly powerful. Going to Omaha 11 times in 29 years is impressive. But when you look at the teams that have been equally successful since 1981, something is missing for the maroon and gold.

(1982-2010)

Florida State is still alive in this year’s tournament, but if the Seminoles can’t come all the way out of the losers’ bracket it will make 20 total trips to the College World Series without a single championship. Does that make FSU the ASU of the East?

Four different Pac-10 teams have won it all since the last time ASU hoisted the trophy: Arizona, Oregon State, Stanford and USC. Smaller West Coast programs like Pepperdine and Fresno State have also brought home the hardware during that span.

What’s wrong with ASU?

The easy answer for 2010 is ace pitcher Josh Spence’s injury. But that didn’t stop the Devils from going 52-8. It didn’t prevent a 4th straight Pac-10 championship.

ASU’s cuatro-pete atop the Pac-10 has only produced a total of three wins at the College World Series.

Is it Pat Murphy’s fault? He was the head coach for 15 of the 29 years and this year’s team was made up of his guys. Were they wound so tight they woke up at night thinking they were in the middle of a fake fight?

When the Sun Devils came through Tucson in May you could see the team was built in Murphy’s image. They ended warm-ups with a football-like circle of screaming and chest-and-thigh-slapping that converged into a mass jumping huddle.

ASU team picture.
Photo by Matt Pavelek/The Arizona Republic

As the teams lined up for the national anthem you noticed that every single player had the same high socks. They all played the same way too: Patient at the plate and aggressive on the base paths. They were like a machine.

And that’s the problem.

Maybe you need a guy who strikes out 70 times but has a knack for getting big hits under pressure. Maybe you need a pitcher who looks like he pulled his uniform out of a dumpster but always finds a way to work out of a late-inning jam.

Whatever the “it” is has been missing from the ASU baseball program. Piles of regular season wins. No problems in the early rounds of the postseason. But no championships.

All hat and no battle.

What if there was a college basketball equivalent? John Calipari has been to the Eight 8 six times without winning a championship. How big a story would it be if he went another eight times without cutting down the nets?

(By the way, the Calipari comparison may fit even better if the NCAA decides to go Reggie Bush on the Sun Devil baseball program.)

It can’t be denied that getting to the College World Series and losing is better than not getting there at all. The Arizona Wildcats and seven other Pac-10 teams would gladly trade places with ASU this year.

It’s better to be the Buffalo Bills than the Cleveland Browns. It’s better to be John Chaney with 741 wins and no Final Fours than the countless coaches and programs buried in losing.

But whoever ends up as the permanent head coach of the Sun Devil baseball program will have a really big question to answer.

What’s wrong with ASU?

There’s something strange about this year’s college baseball tournament bracket.

West Coast fans will see a lot of familiar fonts this weekend.
Photo by Matt Pavelek/The Arizona Republic

Half of the 16 regionals feature a Pac-10 team.

It is very possible we will never see this again. But at the same time, with the exception of Oregon, each of this year’s Pac-10 participants has been in the tournament within the past two years. Even the odd men out, USC (2005) and Washington (2004), have made recent appearances.

Maybe this is just the result of a good baseball league becoming great.

Here is what each Pac-10 team is up against as it tries to survive and advance:

ARIZONA (33-22)
Seed/Regional: #3 – Fort Worth, TX
Last Tournament: 2008
Last 10 Years: 6 tournaments
Last CWS: 2004
National Championships: 1976, 1980, 1986
Friday Opponent: #2 Baylor (34-22)
Other 2 Teams: #1 TCU (46-11) vs. #4 Lamar (35-24)

Your Stress-Free Wildcats play at noon Arizona time. You can watch free online video right here (you may have to click to the 2nd page of events).

Arizona State (47-8)
Seed/Regional: #1 – Tempe, AZ
Last Tournament: 2009
Last 10 Years: 10 tournaments
Last CWS: 2009
National Championships: 1965, 1967, 1969, 1977, 1981
Friday Opponent: #4 Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Other 2 Teams: #2 San Diego vs. #3 Hawaii

The Sun Devils have made every tournament since 1999. But Wisconsin-Milwaukee has just as many national championships during that span.

California (29-23)
Seed/Regional: #2 – Norman, OK
Last Tournament: 2008
Last 10 Years: 3 tournaments
Last CWS: 1992
National Championships: 1947, 1957
Friday Opponent: #3 North Carolina (36-20)
Other 2 Teams: #1 Oklahoma (44-15) vs. #4 Oral Roberts (35-25)

Do the Bears prefer to be known as the worst 2-seed in the field or the at-large bid with the fewest wins?

Oregon (38-22)
Seed/Regional: #3 – Norwich, CT
Last Tournament: 1964
Last 10 Years: none
Last CWS: 1954
National Championships: none
Friday Opponent: #2 Connecticut (47-14)
Other 2 Teams: #1 Florida State (42-17) vs. #4 Central Connecticut State (33-21)

Hawaii is in the field so Oregon can’t claim the longest travel distance. Now the Ducks just have to beat the #1 seed and two local teams. No problem, right?

Oregon State (31-22)
Seed/Regional: #3 – Gainesville, FL
Last Tournament: 2009
Last 10 Years: 5 tournaments
Last CWS: 2007
National Championships: 2006, 2007
Friday Opponent: #2 Florida Atlantic (35-22)
Other 2 Teams: #1 Florida (42-15) vs. #4 Bethune-Cookman (35-20)

Florida has to be a little nervous. The postseason is what Pat Casey’s Beavers do best.

Stanford (31-23)
Seed/Regional: #2 – Fullerton, CA
Last Tournament: 2008
Last 10 Years: 8 tournaments
Last CWS: 2008
National Championships: 1987, 1988
Friday Opponent: #3 New Mexico (37-20)
Other 2 Teams: #1 Cal State Fullerton (41-15) vs. #4 Minnesota (30-28)

Arizona is responsible for 13% of CSF’s losses and 25% of ASU’s losses. That has to count for something, right?

UCLA (43-13)
Seed/Regional: #1 – Los Angeles, CA
Last Tournament: 2008
Last 10 Years: 5 tournaments
Last CWS: 1997
National Championships: none
Friday Opponent: #4 Kent State (39-23)
Other 2 Teams: #2 LSU (40-20) vs. UC Irvine (37-19)

First eight Pac-10 teams get in, then we have a 40-win SEC team playing on the road. Are we sure this isn’t the softball bracket?

Washington State (34-20)
Seed/Regional: #2 – Fayetteville, AR
Last Tournament: 2009
Last 10 Years: 2 tournaments
Last CWS: 1976
National Championships: none
Friday Opponent: #3 Kansas State (36-20)
Other 2 Teams: #1 Arkansas (40-18) vs. #4 Grambling State (22-30)

The Cougars have made back-to-back tournaments after finishing in last place the first eight seasons after Pac-10 baseball merged.

The college baseball tournament may not be nearly as famous as its basketball brother but this is where Cinderella truly lives. In the past three years we’ve had both a 3-seed (the equivalent of a March Madness #9-12 seed) and a 4-seed (#13-16) win the whole thing.

Yeah, George Mason made the Final Four a few years back. But in college baseball, George Mason can cut down the nets.

Who is going to get hot this weekend? Which pitcher is going to put his team on his back?

Whatever happens, we’ll be watching. For free.

Beep, beep, beep…

You hear that? It’s the sound of Arizona Baseball backing into the NCAA tournament.

I-80 is going to be crowded coming from the west.
Photo by Jeff Metcalfe/The Arizona Republic

The Cats got the news they were hoping for when they were included among the 64 teams in the 2010 Big Diamond Dance. The Pac-10 got the news it wanted when all eight teams in contention made the field. The previous record for the league was six bids in 1992.

What’s interesting is not only did Cal get in but the Bears were seeded higher than Oregon, Arizona and OSU. It appears the committee used the RPI to select teams but then put a higher weight on the conference standings to seed them.

Here is a look at the competition the Wildcats will face in the Fort Worth, Texas regional:

1-seed: TCU
Record: 46-11
Conference Finish: 1st in the Mountain West
RPI: 15
Momentum: Runaway train
The Horned Frogs have won 26 of their last 30 games. They finished the regular season by sweeping Cal State Bakersfield by a combined score of 32-1.

2-seed: Baylor
Record: 34-22
Conference Finish: 6th in the Big 12
RPI: 35
Momentum: Peaking at the right time
The Bears won nine of 11 to close the season, including a trip to the Big 12 tournament championship game.

3-seed: ARIZONA
Record: 33-22
Conference Finish: Tied for 7th in the Pac-10
RPI: 24
Momentum: Like trying to sled uphill. In the mud. Towing a piano.
As has been said many times, the UA lost six straight series to finish the regular season. At least the Wildcats don’t have any pressure.

4-seed: Lamar
Record: 35-24
Conference Finish: Tied for 6th in the Southland
RPI: 115
Momentum: Cinderellaesque
No, not this Lamar, that Lamar, or even that Lamar. After finishing with a losing conference record the Cardinals won four straight games to win the Southland tournament and steal the league’s automatic bid.

Getting eight teams into the tournament – including a team that just brought baseball back last year – is a really big accomplishment for the Pac-10. In fact, having 80% of one conference in the field has never been done before.

Now the challenge is making sure nobody regrets including that much Pac. ASU and UCLA need to take care of business at home and some of the other six need to surprise people. For the best bets to pull off upsets give me Washington State in Arkansas’ regional, and Oregon in Connecticut’s regional (where Florida State is the 1-seed).

The good news for the relieved Pac-10 squads is the only other previous Pac teams to make the tournament with losing conference records made the most of their extra life. In 2006 Stanford won its regional and the ’07 Oregon State Beavers just happened to win the national championship.

As for Arizona’s chances? Well, the last time the Cats won consecutive games in the same weekend was April 17 and 18. The last (and only) time this team won back-to-back road games? April 11 at Washington and April 12 at Gonzaga. Considering you need to win at least three games to advance, it’s not looking good for the guys in cardinal and navy.

But, to borrow a cliché from your parents, it’s the experience that counts. Eight of the ten regular position players and eight of the ten main pitchers are freshmen and sophomores so this will be their first taste of postseason play. Playing in a new ballpark, facing a different team every day, feeling the stress of an elimination game, the young Cats need to soak it all in.

The Wildcats are playing for next year. Of course you play to win and you go as far as you can, but the big-picture goal is to use this weekend as the springboard for 2011 when Arizona hopes to be one of the teams with the high expectations.

Until then the Cats can be proud to be a part of the Pac-10’s historic Great Eight.