You’d better believe in the Beavers.
Photo by Pat Shannahan/The Arizona Republic

The Arizona Wildcats are feeling a lot better about themselves after sweeping USC, but the biggest statement was made by Oregon State, the leaders of the Pac.

Here are the Pac-10 baseball results from last weekend:

OSU won two of three at UCLA.
Scores: 7-5, 2-0, 2-5
OSU didn’t just take care of business against UCLA, they did it in style. How do you beat the best pitcher in the Pac-10? You throw a no-hitter against him.

(Link to the game recap with video of the final inning.)

I’m going to guess the Pac-10 champs don’t often go hitless so cross off UCLA as a contender. That leaves Arizona State as the last remaining challenger to the Beavers.

ASU won two of three vs. Stanford.
Scores: 12-10, 4-6, 7-1
It wasn’t a sweep and that might not cut it in the quest to catch OSU. The Beavers finish with: Cal, at Washington, USC, at Oregon. The Sun Devils go: at USC, at Washington, UCLA. UCLA is better than Cal so ASU’s only advantage is having to play three fewer games. Oregon State and their two-loss lead look strong.

Cal won two of three vs. Oregon.
Scores: 2-1, 3-4, 5-4
How close is close? Three one-run games with two of them decided in the bottom of the 9th.

ARIZONA won all three vs. USC.
Scores: 4-3 (10 inn.), 20-4, 8-5
When you’re the only team to sweep you gain ground on everybody. The Cats went from 7th place to 5th place and are now just a couple games out of 3rd. The UA is also back to having the third-highest win total in the Pac-10 with 27 (OSU and ASU have 32 wins apiece).

WSU won two of three vs. Washington.
Scores: 5-2, 11-6, 5-6
These are the two worst teams in the league but the Huskies are a little worser.

- – -

rankings:

BAS = Baseball America
COL = Collegiate Baseball
NAT = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
PER = Perfect Game
USA = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll

Only three Pac-10 teams are found in every poll, a season low.

The UCLA enigma, however, has reached a new high. The Bruins’ range stretches from #13 in one poll to completely unranked in two others.

For Arizona, with Steve Selsky hurt and Jett Bandy still below .300 the Cats have been dying for some production out of the middle of their lineup. Robert Refsnyder – .455 average with a double, triple, 2 home runs and 8 RBIs against USC – might be the answer.

The only answer to extending the good feelings is to keep winning.

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Scott Terrell has a firm grasp of the obvious. Learn more of what you already know on Twitter and Facebook.

Andy Lopez prepares for his 10th season at Arizona.
Tucson Citizen photo

We interrupt the basketball euphoria and football intrigue to remind the Wildcat Universe that Arizona Baseball throws the first pitch of the 2011 season tonight at Kindall Field/Sancet Stadium.

The BatCats take on North Dakota State at 6 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. Saturday and 12 noon on Sunday.

At first glance this looks like a “year away” team. Arizona returns six hitters who started at least 50 games last year but four of them are sophomores. Two of the three opening-weekend starting pitchers are second-year players, as are most of the arms in the bullpen.

But if right fielder Steve Selsky can return quickly from his hand injury, catcher Jett Bandy can have a huge year and pitcher Kyle Simon can build on his Cap Cod League success, this team could show significant improvement on last year’s 12-15 Pac-10 record.

The problem is the conference was historically good in 2010 with a record eight teams making the NCAA tournament, and there doesn’t appear to be a big drop-off on the horizon. UCLA is the clear favorite with two future 1st-round picks in their starting rotation on a team that made the finals of the College World Series last year. The Pac-10 coaches picked Arizona to finish 5th in the league.

Last year’s schedule was definitely freshman-friendly with 25 straight home games to start the season. The result was a 15-game winning streak and a 20-5 start that allowed the Cats to sneak into the postseason after struggling down the stretch. The UA will face a stiffer challenge in 2011 with seven non-conference road games. Five of the nine Pac-10 series will also be played away from home.

For football games I buy season tickets in the Red Zone. With basketball I go to a couple games a year but mainly watch on TV. Baseball is different. With baseball I get to sit in the press box and pretend I’m one of the pros. (They don’t let me wear the hat though.) I don’t get to as many games as I’d like (curse you, real life) but I love going out to the ballpark to watch athletes from my school play the game of my youth.

Yes, I’m ecstatic about the hoops team. I am giddy about Tom Savage filling the gap at quarterback.

But there’s always room for baseball.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell is trying to shake off the rust on his curveball. Step up to the plate on Twitter and Facebook.

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.

Just how open is this conference race?

ASU & UCLA? The sign says it all.
Photo by Deirdre Hamill/The Arizona Republic

ASU’s stumble raised the eyebrows and hopes of a number of teams in the rest of the league. With Cal staying sweep-happy do we now have a four-team race in the Pac-10? Or are the Bears and Beavers just fooling themselves while we wait for the mammoth ASU/UCLA showdown in two weeks?

And what about a young Arizona team returning to the stadium where it holds a 20-5 record?

Oregon (21-11 / 4-5) at UCLA (26-3 / 4-2)
The Bruins’ two wins at OSU last week earned UCLA a #1 ranking in a couple of polls. Oregon’s two wins at Stanford earned the Ducks their first Pac-10 series victory since their baseball resurrection.

Stanford (15-13 / 4-5) at OSU (20-8 / 3-3)
If the Cardinal wants to be included among the good half of the Pac-10 they need to make a statement this weekend. If the Beavers want to maintain contact with the front runners they can’t afford to lose another series at home.

USC (15-17 / 2-7) at ASU (28-3 / 6-3)
The Sun Devils have already clinched a winning overall record. There’s no way they lose at home to the last-place Trojans…right?

Washington (18-13 / 3-3) at Cal (20-10 / 6-3)
As we disused last time Cal needs to bank more wins this weekend because it looks like a schedule recession is coming.

WSU (19-11 / 3-3) at ARIZONA (23-9)
The Cats are feeling a lot better about themselves after a three-out-of-four road trip. The Cougars are downright giddy after taking a series from ASU for the first time ever, ever, ever.

The stretch drive starts right now for the Wildcats. Of the next 20 games the only ones away from home are a three-game set at struggling USC and two single-game non-conference tilts at ASU.

After righting the ship at Washington and Gonzaga the UA has a very real shot at getting into the NCAA tournament, but to get there the Cats can’t waste winnable home games. You also don’t want to lose games to fellow bubble teams and WSU would certainly qualify. In fact, every Pac team except USC is still holding out hope it can win enough games to earn an invite to the Big Baseball Dance.

Last weekend Kurt Heyer showed no ill effects from the head shot at Cal. Kyle Simon pitched the game of his life on Sunday. The middle-of-the-lineup trio of Jett Bandy, Steve Selsky and Robert Refsnyder are all hitting .400 with an OPS of 1.000 or better. Arizona’s best players look primed to lead the team on another hot streak.

But then you go back to the freshman thing. Did the young Cats get out all the jitters in Berkeley? Or is there a wall around the corner?

No one ever said growing up in the Pac-10 was easy.

It turns out playing all your games at home is a good way to pick up a bunch of wins.

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team extended its winning streak to eight with a pair of midweek thrashings of Wichita State. The true shocker was Wednesday when the Cats blasted the previously-ranked Shockers to the tune of 19-0. Any time you can give a team its worst shutout loss in three decades you’ve had a pretty good day.

I’m not sure which number is more impressive. Three touchdowns’ worth of runs (we need a new kicker) are hard to ignore but midweek shutouts are very rare. Heck, any shutout in college baseball is cause for celebration. Kyle Simon and company did a great job.

In last weekend’s sweep of Northern Colorado the middle game was close (a 7-6 UA victory) but the bookends were Wildcat routs.

My one complaint is concerning Friday starting pitcher Kurt Heyer. I’m certainly not talking about his performance as Heyer only gave up one run and one walk while striking out 10. My issue is with the length of his performance. Why leave him out there for the full nine innings with an 8-run cushion? After watching Preston Guilmet burn out after his incredible sophomore season I’m always going to be nervous when I see a guy throwing 123 pitches.

"Are those diamonds on your elbow?"
Photo from Tucson Citizen archive

And to top it off Heyer threw the 9th in Tuesday’s game. Was the bullpen mound broken? I know Andy Lopez has been doing this a long time but the UA went 18 years in between Pac-10 Pitchers of the Year so if Heyer has that kind of potential we need to treat his right arm like it’s encrusted with jewels.

When it comes to the offense you won’t hear me saying anything negative about anybody. Remember when it was exciting that we had five players hitting above .350? There are now five above .380 with three guys looking down on .430. The Jett is soaring with a .493 average and a Ruthian 1.373 OPS.

Even the bottom part of the order is coming around. Bryce Ortega’s average is still only .262 but thanks to a team-leading 12 walks he’s got his on-base percentage up over .400. He’s also playing good defense (no errors) and he’s tied for the team lead with 10 stolen bases (without being caught). I fully expect Bryce to be back on the north side of .300 soon.

(Oh wait, I do have one last complaint. Can we ship the Ivan Brothers back to Norway? The commercial was almost mildly amusing the first time I saw it while watching March Madness On Demand but do we have to get hit over the head with a horned helmet after every break? I’d even settle for more of those “Most of us are going pro in something other than sports” ads.)

From an RPI standpoint the Arizona baseball team isn’t getting a lot of help as both Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton have losing records, and Wichita State lost two of three to Long Beach. But the Pac-10 is strong once again with UCLA, Stanford, OSU, ASU and WSU all in the RPI top 15, so our guys will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves against tough competition.

That competition is right around the corner as we enter the final weekend before the start of conference play. Sacramento State is on deck and the Hornets sport a 6-8 record after beating Pacific on Tuesday and losing two of three to UC Irvine. Sac State only gave up 14 total runs in those four games so it’ll be interesting to see how their pitchers fare against the red hot BatCats.

To contrast that the New Mexico Lobos will be bringing their big bats to the Old Pueblo on Tuesday and Wednesday. UNM is averaging 12 runs per game over their last seven contests and they already have series wins over Texas and USC.

Even a Viking would be impressed.

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.

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team has had a rough seven days. Coach Andy Lopez’s team blew a late lead in the first game against Long Beach State and then got knocked around in the second game before rain cancelled the Sunday content.

The first midweek series saw UNLV come in and score five runs before making their first out. When the score book says, “Grand slams: 1, Outs 0” you’re officially off to a bad start. The Cats rallied to tie the game at 7-7 and again at 10-10 but the bullpen couldn’t slow the Rebel bats and the final rally came up short.

Wednesday’s game featured more bullpen issues for the home team leading to more rallying but this time Arizona pulled it out. After 22 combined runs on Tuesday the second UNLV game featured a 2-1 score going into the 8th. The Rebels pushed across the tying run and then took the lead in the 12th inning only to have the Cats tie it in the 12th and win it in the 13th.

So we’re back above .500 as perennial power Cal State Fullerton comes to town. The Titans (if you remember them) are ranked #14, #18, #17, #18 and not ranked (you gotta love college baseball). CSF is 3-4 on the young season with wins against Long Beach and San Diego, losses to Oregon and Pepperdine, and a 2-1 series loss to TCU. This is Fullerton’s first road trip.

UA freshman starting pitcher Kurt Heyer took a step backwards last Friday giving up four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of work. His control was still there (seven strikeouts and no walks) but he got tagged for 11 hits. All a part of a young pitcher adjusting to the college level.

The Wildcats’ young bats are definitely ahead of the young arms. Sophomores Jett Bandy and Steve Selsky are leading the way as expected but freshmen Robert Refsnyder and Joey Rickard are off to great starts. The frosh infielders are struggling at the plate however with Alex Mejia and Seth Mejias-Brean both sporting batting averages below .200.

The one hitter off to a surprisingly slow start is junior infielder Bryce Ortega. After hitting above .320 (with .400+ on-base percentages) in each of his first two seasons Ortega is slumping with just four hits in 28 at-bats (.143). The low point was an 0-for-6 in the first UNLV game, which is more rare than a 4-for-4 in college ball. Maybe playing second base instead of shortstop has Bryce’s brain turned around. Whatever the reason it might be best to drop Ortega in the lineup to take some pressure off and let someone like Rafael Valenzuela (.484 OBP) or Rickard (.406 OBP, 4 stolen bases) take a shot at leading off.

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

It’s official: Rebuilding isn’t fun.

I know the Arizona Wildcats basketball team is young. We all know they’re young. But that doesn’t make it any easier to watch the Cats lose. Not at home. Not to ASU.

We’re now up to a baker’s dozen losses on the season, including five at the McKale Memorial Center. The home losses include a sweep by the Pac-10 “States.” ASU, OSU and WSU all came to Tucson and left with a hoops victory. The same three schools that have combined for one Pac-10 basketball championship (and a co-championship at that) in the past 25 years.

Not fun at all.

We just can’t wrap our red-and-blue-loving minds around it. You still see “Arizona” on the front of the jerseys and you expect the team to pull out games at the end. Defensive stops. Big shots. Clutch free throws. That’s what UA basketball represents.

I believe in Sean Miller. I am still excited about the potential of the five freshmen. If we made it through Mackovic we can survive anything.

But patience isn’t fun.

Cat fans hoped the 52-31 second half in Tempe would carry over to this game. But when the score was 13-13 after ten minutes of play it was pretty easy to see who was dictating tempo. Arizona actually did worse in the second ten minutes of game, finishing with just 25 points at the break.

That said, the UA still had a four-point lead with just over two minutes before halftime. ASU was sitting on 21 points before a key stretch that turned momentum toward Sparky’s side. The Wildcats jacked up three shots from behind the arc and missed all three while the Devils drained two triples and converted a three-point play. The 9-0 run gave ASU a lead it held for almost the entire second half.

Ty Abbott was the hero but he needed a relief pitcher to close out the game. With 11 minutes to play Abbott had 28 points and Jerren Shipp had zero. Ty didn’t score another point while Jerren (e.g., the rowboat of the Shipp family) exploded for eight. Maybe the two of them switched uniforms.

Here are Jamelle Horne’s rebounding totals from the last six games: 1, 2, 2, 1, 14, 3. Is there such a thing as a 24-hour dose of desire?

Another thing that’s not easy is seeing ASU tied for first in the loss column with just two weeks left. Since Cal got hit with the Beaver-stink the Sun Devils control their own destiny for their first Pac-10 title. How’s that for an unlikely showdown? The guys who haven’t won the league in 50 years against the guys who wish they had a 50-year-old championship.

The Wildcats had a chance to knock the Devils out of the basketball Rose Bowl but couldn’t seal the deal at home. Now we’re left with having to helplessly root against ASU over the final four games.

Bitter? Possibly. Pitiful? Perhaps, but a rival’s gotta do what a rival’s gotta do.

To make matters worse, an Arizona win on Thursday directly helps ASU. If the Cats and Devils both win their next game Arizona State is alone in first place. Not fun at all.

So do we even want to beat Cal? Wouldn’t it be better for Arizona to lose so we can hold onto the “no Pac-10 championships” trump card?

Don’t even think about it. We’re tired, we’re frustrated, but let’s not get crazy.

Of course we want the Cats to win on Thursday. You have to stay focused on the big picture. Arizona winning a championship is better than ASU not winning one. We don’t get our next league title until this team gets better, and the best way for this team to get better is to play more games.

We’ve got to win as many games as possible to get some tournament somewhere to select Arizona. I don’t care if it’s the NIT, CBI, CIT or AEIOU&sometimesY. I want the Cats to win enough games to earn the opportunity to practice and play longer, so next year we can get back to our winning ways.

Now that would be fun.

- – - – -

As promised the Arizona baseball team started its season over the weekend. The result – a three-game sweep of Utah Valley – wasn’t a surprise, although the Cats needed a walk-off home run from The Jett to take the finale in 10 innings.

Beating the Wolverines was expected. UVU hasn’t had a winning season since 2006. The real story, however, was the performance of freshman pitcher Kurt Heyer on Friday night. Heyer made his collegiate debut by striking out 13 batters in six innings while only allowing one walk and one run. I don’t care if you’re throwing batting practice to Little Leaguers, accuracy is a big deal and a 13-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio is impressive against anyone.

The name of the game this season is looking for hints of potential stardom and we got our first one opening night, in a big way.

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.