For the third straight game in the UA/ASU series a team was held to four runs but this time the Sun Devils got the pitching they needed to make it hold up.

ASU had just enough to get by the Cats.
Photo by Cheryl Evans/The Arizona Republic

The Arizona Wildcats were limited to four hits as ASU claimed a 4-2 victory Monday night to win the weekend and season series.

The Cats wasted a superb pitching performance from starter Daniel Workman who worked into the 7th inning allowing just one earned run.

Someone needs to show Workman a picture of Sparky before every start. The junior has a 2.19 earned run average over 12.1 innings in two starts against ASU, and a 9.47 ERA in nine starts against everyone else. He’s the Mike Jefferson of baseball.

There are no moral victories in rivalry games. Arizona State has baseball bragging rights for another year. But there were positive signs coming out of the Wildcat dugout. The season is not over. The team has not given up. The dream has not died.

That dream is making the 2010 NCAA tournament.

“We talk about it every day,” coach Andy Lopez said. “We talk about it from the very first day we meet in August. It’s always a goal. That’s what you come here for, to be in postseason play.”

The Wildcats have no more room for bad weekends. The upcoming series with Stanford is huge with a capital H and a couple extra U’s. Arizona absolutely has to take two of three games. Get back to .500 in Pac-10 play and the postseason goal is very much in reach.

ASU will be a national seed and stay at home all the way to Omaha. UCLA will probably host a regional. After that?

“The Pac is so jumbled,” Lopez said. “(The tournament) is within reach for five or six teams.”

Cal, Stanford, Washington State, Oregon and Arizona are all within a game of each other in the standings, and Oregon State is loitering a game behind that.

How many Pac-10 teams will get in? Over the past eight seasons the Pac has gotten either four or five teams in every season but one. That one was last year, but it was an odd season in that only three Pac teams finished with both a winning record in conference and overall.

If the Pac-10 quota remains at five it means you have six teams fighting for three spots. Oregon State is included because its RPI is so high (31 as of May 11) and by winning five of their last six league games the Beavers have moved their conference record within striking distance of .500.

It’s worth noting that if Arizona can beat Stanford and OSU to close out the season it would give the UA a series victory over four of the other five middle-of-the-Pac teams. Add in the two wins against ASU and a series victory over Cal State Fullerton and the Cats would be a lock.

Arizona certainly controls its own destiny and Andy Lopez has made sure his players have the tournament in mind . “They know that’s what they’re playing for right now,” he said.

They also know what it will take to get there.

“We’ve got to win some games.”

- – - – -

Here are the results from the other Pac-10 games this past weekend:

OSU won two of three vs. Washington. Scores: 8-6, 7-3, 2-3
The microwavable Beavers are suddenly hot.

UCLA won all three vs. USC. Scores: 13-7, 15-2, 2-1
The Bruins inched within three games of ASU. UCLA really wishes it had that series with the Sun Devils back.

WSU won two of three at Stanford. Scores: 7-8, 4-2, 9-3
This was a back-breaker for the Cardinal in the conference race. Can they bounce back in Tucson with a tournament bid on the line?

Oregon won all three vs. East Tennessee State. Scores: 5-0, 7-6, 17-7
Mister Jennings is not pleased.

The updated standings:

The most recent rankings:

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

Washington State hit the polls which isn’t good for other bubble teams. The rankings only reflect the games through Sunday so Arizona actually moved up thanks to its 1-1 status with ASU at the time.

The bottom of the polls reflect the glut of semi-good teams in the Pac-10. Five of the middlings are in at least one poll but none are in every poll, and OSU is one more good weekend away from getting back in the polls.

Whose destiny will be controlled?

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:

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!

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.

Where’s a Niq Wise senior day rewrite when you need one?

That certainly wasn’t what we had in mind. The Cats scored the first basket on Thursday then never led again. The game looked a lot like last week’s UCLA game for the first 27 minutes but there was no McKale crowd (and Kyle Fogg 3s) to turn things around.

Our young team gave us one last memory of inconsistency. How do you get out-rebounded and fail to get back on D every other possession?

Ben Howland had his guys in the perfect defensive position all afternoon. The Bruins knew exactly where Derrick Williams would try to go with the ball when faced with a double-team. They knew which lanes to step into when an Arizona player got caught in the air or trapped on the baseline. Of course, it would help if the Cats didn’t self-trap themselves but that’s a discussion for one of our many offseason days.

And so the moment we’ve been dreading is here. Selection Sunday will come and go without any selecting of the team from Tucson. Will you be able to watch?

Personally, I don’t know what I’m going to do on Sunday. Part of me wants to watch to get some closure and see what we hope Sean Miller is building toward. But I know it’s going to hurt.

The thing is, it’s completely understandable that we don’t know how to react. The last time an Arizona fan went through missing the tournament we weren’t “Arizona.” We were coming off a season with our third coach in three years. Back then “the streak” was the UA missing the tournament seven straight years. This is brand new for all of us.

But life goes on. And so might the games. The streak is over but the season may not be. Yes, an NIT bid is possible and, yes, I want it. I hope the Cats get invited, I hope they accept, and I hope the team plays well. The more games our freshmen play the better.

How funny would it be if ASU just stole our NIT bid when they also lost in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament? Even though I hope the Wildcats’ season continues sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due. ASU and the NIT belong together.

For one sad year, Arizona hopes to join them.

- – - – -

The BatCats bounced back nicely from their rough week. Arizona punctuated its 2-1 series victory over top-25 Cal State Fullerton with a 10-1 victory last Sunday. Daniel Workman went six innings without giving up an earned run to secure his first win of the year and guarantee he’ll be in the starting rotation again this weekend.

Next was the age-old college baseball tradition of warm weather teams beating up on their chilly visitors from the north. This week’s victim was St. Joseph’s as the Cats swept the two games by a combined score of 29-5.

As a result our guys are sporting some gaudy offensive numbers. Arizona is hitting a cool .334 as a team highlighted by five players above .350. The highlights of the highlights are Steve Selsky at .446 with a .492 on-base percentage, and Jett Bandy with his video game .490 average, .559 OBP and .863 slugging percentage.

On deck are the Northern Colorado Bears who sit at 3-5 on the year. The UA looks to build another three games’ worth of momentum before top-25 Wichita State pays a midweek visit.

Game times for the UNC series are 4 p.m. on Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday. The WSU games are Tuesday and Wednesday, both at 6 p.m.

Perhaps on Sunday you can select some baseball and let the ping of leather meeting aluminum sooth your Wildcat soul.

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.