Stanford’s Mark Appel contributed to Arizona’s fruitless trip.
Photo by Crystal Ochoa/The Arizona Republic

When they say baseball is a funny game they’re talking about series like this past weekend for the Arizona Wildcats.

Kurt Heyer threw nine shutout innings on Friday night, and his team lost.

The UA outscored a Pac-10 opponent over the three games but lost twice. And it’s the second time that’s happened this year.

That’s baseball.

The Cats weren’t favored to win at Stanford so it wasn’t a shock they lost two of three. But it’s frustrating to leave town knowing you were just a couple hits away from sweeping the series.

Kurt Heyer was absolutely dominant in the series opener but his teammates couldn’t push anything across against two Stanford pitchers in a very rare 1-0, 11-inning game.

Kyle Simon wasn’t quite as good but he got the run support and the 7-3 victory, his team-leading 10th win of the year.

Konner Wade had the best performance of his young career with 6.1 shutout innings only to face the same fate as Heyer in a 2-1 loss.

All told K Cubed combined for a 1.19 ERA over 22.2 innings with 16 strikeouts and a single base on balls. You don’t get much better than that. Except for the winning part.

Arizona’s last four losses have come by one run. Is that good news or bad news?

It leaves the BatCats somewhere between good and bad, 12-12 in conference play, stuck in a three-way tie for 5th place. You don’t get much more mediocre than that.

Elsewhere…

USC won two of three at OSU.
Scores: 2-7, 8-3, 4-3
Didn’t see that one coming. The Trojans have now won five of their last six series. They will argue with Georgia about who is the best team not in the NCAA tournament. The Beavers picked a bad time to drop their first Pac-10 series of the year. But it didn’t cost them everything because…

ASU won two of three at Washington.
Scores: 6-0, 12-0, 0-3
The one loss on Sunday kept the Sun Devils out of 1st place. They have company because…

UCLA won two of three vs. Cal.
Scores: 0-4, 2-1, 5-2.
The Bruins couldn’t get all three either. It sets up a huge battle in Tempe this upcoming weekend with the winner hoping for Beaver defeats.

WSU won two of three vs. Oregon.
Scores: 12-6, 3-6, 8-7
Don’t look now but the Cougars have won three of their last four. Actually, go ahead and look because the Ducks and Portland Pilots aren’t very good.

- – -

What did the pollsters think of OSU losing and UCLA winning?

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

ASU closed the poll gap on Oregon State and everybody likes the Bruins again. Stanford took Arizona’s place in one poll and the Cats slid down into 6th place in the Pac average rankings.

Joey Rickard and Cole Frenzel lost a lot of ground in the Pac-10 batting race and it’s not a coincidence the team struggled to score runs. Add in Bryce Ortega and the top three hitters in the UA lineup went a combined 4-for-34 (.117) against the Cardinal.

The good news on the stat front is Josh Garcia got a couple starts and hit his team-leading 7th home run of the year, just one behind the Pac-10 co-leaders, Taylor Ard and Derek Jones of WSU. What makes it even more impressive is Ard and Jones have each started 50 games while Garcia has only started 32.

Extra batting practice for everybody!

- – - – -

Scott Terrell thinks it’s hard to win when you don’t score. Look for more complex math on Twitter and Facebook.

Robert Refsnyder will try to add to his league-leading 48 RBIs.
Photo by Pat Shannahan/The Arizona Republic

TWIT-Pac loves when all Pac-10 teams play conference series at the same time, which means TWIT-Pac is fired up about the final two weeks of the regular season.

Can Oregon State hold off ASU? Will the Arizona Wildcats and Stanford play to three ties? Will UCLA finally put its pitching rotation in the right order?

Around the league we go…

#28.4 ARIZONA (32-17 / 11-10) at
#28.0 Stanford (28-18 / 10-11)
These two teams are one game apart in the standings, four apart in total wins, six apart in the RPI and just 0.4 apart in the average rankings. Now watch, the series will be three blowouts.

USC (20-28 / 10-11) at #5.0 OSU (37-12 / 16-5)
The Trojans have won four of their last five Pac-10 series. The Cats have to feel really good about sweeping USC.

#10.6 ASU (36-13 / 14-7) at Washington (15-32 / 5-16)
The Sun Devils need to take all three if they want to make one last run at Oregon State.

#29.2 Cal (29-16 / 12-9) at #24.2 UCLA (29-19 / 14-7)
UCLA needs the same sweep as ASU since the two teams currently tied for 2nd meet next week.

Oregon (28-24 / 7-14) at WSU (22-25 / 6-15)
Duck and Cougar fans are just hoping it doesn’t rain.

- – -

In case you missed it ASU just now had its appeal hearing. Since the Sun Devils are eligible for the postseason until a decision is made there’s no way they’ll be kept out of this year’s tournament. Heck, with the speed that the NCAA is handling USC’s football appeal, you might want to pencil in ASU on your 2012 baseball bracket as well.

Moving south on I-10, don’t look now but the Wildcats are the hottest team in the league. Arizona is 8-2 in its last 10 games which is better than UCLA and Stanford’s 7-3.

Officially, Andy Lopez is sticking with his normal pitching rotation of Kurt Heyer on Friday and Kyle Simon on Saturday. But you can’t blame him for contemplating a switch.

In his last four starts Simon is 3-0 with a 1.62 ERA and a 9-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. During the same span Heyer is 1-1 with a 4.61 ERA and only 3.5 K’s for every walk. Over the last month Heyer has become Garfunkel to Simon’s…well, Simon.

Of course, Lopez could take UCLA’s approach and keep the best pitcher in the Pac-10 (and the nation?) as his #2 guy while continuing to give the ball to a guy with a losing record on Fridays.

If the Cats are going to do anything in June both Heyer and Simon need to be at the top of their game. They were expected to be co-aces but the duo hasn’t earned wins in the same Pac-10 series all year. That’s a pretty good reason why this team is only one game above .500 in league play.

Konner Wade will be making his fourth straight start as the anchor in the rotation. Kurt, Kyle and Konner. You always want your starting pitchers to have a lot of K’s.

The Brothers K.

K Cubed.

The KK… Yikes. Do not use that one.

A quality start from each pitcher would be appreciated, no matter what you call them.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell better WHA. Help him watch his acronyms on Twitter and Facebook.

Ricky Oropesa and USC slapped ASU.
Photo by Crystal Ochoa/The Arizona Republic

It wasn’t easy but the Arizona Wildcats won a Pac-10 baseball series away from home for the first time this season.

Elsewhere in the Pac-10, Oregon State got some help from its friends to extend the Beaver lead in the conference race.

In the stat department, the top of the league batting chart is getting crowded with Cats.

The weekend started poorly for the UA as Kurt Heyer couldn’t hold a 4-run lead in the opener. Arizona rallied in the 9th to force extra innings but Washington State won it in the bottom of the 10th when Matt Chaffee went from a two outs, bases empty situation to walking in the winning run.

Kyle Simon kept the series alive for the Cats with a complete game victory on Sunday. He was named the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week for his efforts.

The Saturday-to-Monday series didn’t allow Arizona to take advantage of its Friday magic but maybe the Wildcats are just as comfortable on Mondays. The UA took the series by moving to 2-0 on the season when playing on the first day of the work week.

Let’s work our way around the Pac-10:

ARIZONA won two of three at WSU.
Scores: 6-7 (10 inn.), 8-1, 6-4
At 11-10 in Pac-10 play, the Wildcats are now above .500 for the first time since starting 1-0.

OSU won two of three at Washington.
Scores: 6-4, 9-3, 6-7
Oregon State had to play another double header and settled for another split. But there were no sweeps around the conference so no one gained any ground. In fact…

USC won two of three vs. ASU.
Scores: 5-1, 4-7, 6-2
The Sun Devils had gone 13-2 since getting swept by OSU but losing this series should put an end to their quest for a 5-pete.

Oregon won two of three vs. Stanford.
Scores: 6-2, 8-9, 6-5
Stanford’s loss gives the UA sole possession of 5th place.

UCLA won two of three vs. Cal State Bakersfield.
Scores: 1-5, 10-1, 3-2
The Bruins had lost three straight games to three different California schools – Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara and Bakersfield – before rebounding behind – you guessed it – Trevor Bauer.

Cal didn’t win.
All that nothing for nothing.

- – -

How the Pac-10 stacks up in the eyes of the college baseball world:

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

UCLA dropped out of another poll but everyone else stayed in the polls they were in last week and stayed out of the polls that had previously omitted them. The Pac-10 composite pecking order remained the same as well.

There was no change in the conference batting race either. Both Joeys saw their average drop over the weekend by Arizona’s Rickard’s dropped less so he closed the gap on ASU’s DeMichele.

The real change was at the bottom of the top 10 where a red-hot Alex Mejia moved in giving the Wildcats half of the ten best hitters in the conference:

If all five Wildcats keep hitting the odds of staying above .500 in Pac-10 play go way up.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell has opposite-field power. Drive one the other way on Twitter and Facebook.

At UCLA 1 = 2
Photo by Deirdre Hamill/The Arizona Republic

TWIT-Pac asks: Why draft players if you’re not going to let them play?

TWIT-Pac answers: Watch college baseball!

There’s a huge series in Los Angeles and the Arizona Wildcats are back home with a hint of desperation in air.

It’s the last of a stretch of weekends with a full five Pac-10 series before some non-conference tilts get mixed in. The rankings, as always, are the averages of the five main polls.

USC (18-22 / 8-7) at #29.8 ARIZONA (24-16 / 6-9)
Don’t let the rankings or the Trojans’ overall losing record fool you. USC has gone 8-4 in its last 12 games while the Cats have lost 9 of 13. The road team is the favorite this week.

#7.4 OSU (30-8 / 10-2) at #19.8 UCLA (22-14 / 10-5)
The Pac-10 series of the week. OSU has a two-game lead in the loss column over ASU and a three-game cushion over the Bruins. The Beavers have a favorable schedule the rest of the way so if Oregon State can get it done in L.A. the race may be over.

Bonus note: When was the last time the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year wasn’t his team’s Friday night starter? Last weekend UCLA’s Trevor Bauer struck out 17 in his fourth complete game of the season. He leads the league in wins, ERA, opponents batting average and strikeouts (by 32!), yet Gerrit Cole continues to be the Bruins’ #1 starter. Tough crowd.

#23.2 Stanford (20-14 / 5-7) at #8.2 ASU (29-9 / 11-4)
ASU is this year’s Cal. Last year seven of the Bears’ nine Pac-10 series ended in sweeps (three good, four bad). The Sun Devils’ last four series have been sweeps and, since I expect the Cardinal to come back to earth after their stunner against UCLA last Saturday, that sweeping trend might continue.

Oregon (21-18 / 4-8) at #22.6 Cal (24-13 / 9-6)
So far this month the Bears have won two straight, then lost three straight, then won five straight, and now have lost four straight. If they win the first one against Oregon, look out.

Washington (12-25 / 3-9) at WSU (17-19 / 3-12)
Because it’s on the schedule.

- – -

The Wildcats know what’s at stake. After the loss to ASU on Tuesday all the talk was about needing to turn things around right now and the math backs it up. Unless there’s a sweep along the way Arizona has to win each of the remaining four Pac-10 series to finish with a winning record in conference play.

With Kurt Heyer going six innings against ASU his next start won’t be until Sunday, and that might not be a bad thing. Fridays have been very good to the Cats no matter who has started, and Andy Lopez knows it.

“We’ve had a pretty good propensity to play well on Friday and then disappear on Saturday and Sunday,” he said. “I might be able to throw on Friday and win.”

When the USC series opens in Tucson either Kyle Simon will get the ball or freshman Konner Wade will make his third start of the year.

Game times are 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 12 p.m. on Sunday. Win time is right now.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell believes in the magic of Friday night. Follow him any day of the week on Twitter and Facebook.

The Arizona Wildcats are out…of excuses.
Photo by Crystal Ochoa/The Arizona Republic

Read one, get one free!

Since the Pac-10 isn’t interested in trying to get people to come to a college baseball game on Easter Sunday, this week’s series all run Thursday through Saturday.

That means TWIT-Pac is early, which means – right this minute – you get all your Pac-10 hardball info in one place.

Less talking! More info!

Last weekend’s RESULTS!

OSU won all three at Stanford.
Scores: 1-0, 8-1, 6-4
Say hello to the team to beat. Arizona has struggled through a stretch of four straight ranked teams. Well, the Beavers have played three straight…and gone 8-1.

Cal won all three at Washington.
Scores: 6-2, 8-2, 4-3
If you beat up on the bad teams you don’t have to win as many against the good teams.

UCLA won two of three vs. ARIZONA.
Scores: 4-5, 4-0, 8-5
The Cats can beat everybody behind Kurt Heyer. They can’t beat anybody behind anyone else. It’s consistency, but not the kind you want.

ASU won all three vs. WSU.
Scores: 3-1, 8-2, 10-4
The Devils last three series have all been sweeps. The games at home were W’s, the ones on the road were L’s.

USC won two of three vs. Oregon.
Scores: 2-4, 9-2, 3-1
The 16-20 Trojans now sit above two ranked teams in the Pac-10 standings.

- – -

This week’s RANKINGS!

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

The polls now reflect the top of the Pac-10 standings (in four out of five of them, anyway). Stanford dropped out of three of the polls after getting swept, and the Cats slid closer to a similar fate after another series loss.

- – -

This week’s SCHEDULE!

#23.4 ARIZONA (23-13 / 5-7) at Oregon (19-16 / 2-7)
The Wildcats are now done with the four best teams in the league. If they’re going to turn things around, now is the time. Can UA baseball do the opposite of the football team?

WSU (14-17 / 2-10) at #8.4 OSU (27-7 / 8-1)
First place hosts last place. The Sam Gaviglio no-hitter watch starts now.

#17.6 UCLA (20-12 / 9-3) at #28.4 Stanford (17-12 / 3-6)
The Cardinal has lost five straight Pac-10 games. Don’t worry; they have four weeks to get better before facing Arizona.

#9.8 ASU (25-9 / 8-4) at #18.2 Cal (24-9 / 9-3)
Now we’ll start to see if the Bears are for real. The Sun Devils aren’t used to residing in 4th place.

USC (16-20 / 6-6) at Washington (11-23 / 2-7)
At the moment the Pac-10 is shaped like a swimsuit model: Full on top and at the bottom but thin in the middle. USC is the belly button.

- – -

It’s not surprising that Arizona gets better pitching when Kurt Heyer is on the mound. But it’s the run-support numbers that make the UA’s one-win-forward-two-losses-back routine even more puzzling.

The Wildcats have scored 34 total runs in Heyer’s Pac-10 starts. Kyle Simon has gotten just 15 runs of support while Tyler Hale has been backed by 20.

Even if you drop the 18-0 game down to 8-0 the UA still averages a full run more per game against the other team’s best starter than they do against the #3 starters, and two runs per game more than against the #2 guys. It makes no sense.

The Oregon Ducks have the third best team ERA in the Pac-10 and they move up to second if you only look at conference games. This will not be an easy series for Arizona, especially on the road, but if the Cats want to be a ranked team, if they want a decent seed in the NCAA tournament, the wins need to start happening right now.

WINS!

- – - – -

Scott Terrell strives for literary fuel efficiency. Save the planet on Twitter and Facebook.

Gerrit Cole has been scarier than the IRS.
Photo by Deirdre Hamill/The Arizona Republic

Have you filed your taxes yet?

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team is hoping its adjusted gross income includes another series win but they’re facing a pitching staff that doesn’t allow many deductions.

TWIT-Pac is here to audit the weekend’s hardball schedule.

As usual, the listed rankings are the averages of the five polls:

#20.0 ARIZONA (22-11 / 4-5)
at #19.2 UCLA (17-11 / 7-2)
Early in the season UA coach Andy Lopez said, “Somebody tells me everybody and their mother is ranked in Pac-10 baseball.” As the Cats get set to face a Top-25 team for the fourth straight weekend it probably feels like everybody’s mother, sister, aunt, and three cousins once removed.

#12.2 OSU (24-7 / 5-1) at #18.6 Stanford (16-9 / 3-3)
The Beavers now have everyone’s attention, but how will things change as Oregon State goes from home underdogs to road favorites?

WSU (14-14 / 2-7) at #11.2 ASU (22-9 / 5-4)
Arizona State tries to make Wazzu “Fear the Fork.” (No, I can’t type that without giggling.) Considering the Devils still have to play Cal, Stanford and UCLA they can’t afford even one loss this weekend if they want to win the league a fifth straight time.

#20.0 Cal (20-9 / 6-3) at Washington (10-20 / 2-4)
The Huskies have won three of four, all on the road. This is the Bears’ last respite before their schedule fills up with ranked relatives.

Oregon (16-4 / 1-5) at USC (13-19 / 4-5)
Wildcat fans should be rooting for the Ducks. If things don’t go well in L.A. the UA could wake up Monday morning in 7th place.

The flip side is Arizona has a direct shot at one of the teams above it.

The Cats’ 3-0 record on Pac-10 Friday nights will be severely tested against Gerrit Cole, he of the two consecutive complete-game wins. On paper this is a pitchers’ duel to end all pitchers’ duels. UCLA has already played two 1-0 games, three 2-1 games, two 3-2 games and a 2-0 game. If you’re in the Los Angeles area and you have an hour to spare you may be able to take in the whole game.

As poorly as the Bruins hit if you get any kind of lead against them you’re in a great shape. The problem is they make it extremely hard to score, let alone build a lead.

Putting the ball in play will be at a premium. Bunting will be crucial. Every run will be worth about 57 barrels of crude oil.

The game times are 6 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Kurt Heyer and Kyle Simon will take their normal starts but Arizona’s game three starter is listed as TBA, which means Lopez’s patience is wearing thin with Tyler Hale.

You can listen to Saturday and Sunday’s games on 1290 AM in Tucson and you can get all three games via free online radio through UCLA.

Maybe your bullpen be strong and your tax refund large.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell thinks all forms should be EZ. Itemize your sports on Twitter and Facebook.

Cole Frenzel wasn’t feeling like dancing against ASU.
Photo by Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic

It started out so well for the Arizona Wildcats.

Isn’t that what we said last week? Unfortunately, yes.

After starting the season 17-5 the UA has lost three straight and five of eight, including a home loss to Arizona State. It’s enough to make a team ready to fight and that’s almost what happened after both benches cleared Tuesday night.

ASU appeared to be coasting with a 6-1 lead in the 4th inning when Cole Frenzel was hit in the back with a first-pitch fastball. Frenzel had been hit in the helmet his previous time up and exchanged words with Sun Devil pitcher Kyle Ottoson and second baseman Zack MacPhee.

Both benches cleared but the umpires and coaches maintained order with only Arizona’s bullpen catcher, TC Mark, getting ejected (a strange way for the freshman to get into his first boxscore).

The game resumed, ASU center fielder Andy Workman made a diving catch to snuff out the UA rally, and ASU cruised to a 10-5 victory. With the win the Devils clinched the season series for the third consecutive year.

The bigger issue is the Wildcats lost two of three at home to Oregon State over the weekend to fall to 2-4 in Pac-10 play. For the second straight series Kurt Heyer was magnificent Friday night only to see the team falter in the next two games.

The sophomore K-maker threw his first complete game of the season in an 18-0 shellacking of the Beavers. With Heyer’s pitch-count rising coach Andy Lopez considered pulling him after the 8th inning but Heyer was able to talk him out of it.

“He sensed that I wanted it very badly,” the righthander said Friday night. “He gave that last inning to me and I got that last zero. It felt great.”

The good feeling didn’t last long as starting pitchers Kyle Simon and Tyler Hale weren’t able to match Heyer’s performance and the UA hitters couldn’t come close to duplicating the offensive outburst as OSU took the series with 10-4 and 8-4 wins.

Lopez is mostly concerned with his slumping pitchers. “My whole career has been based off of two real basic things,” he said after the ASU game. “You gotta pitch and play defense, and we’re not pitching in a couple situations and it’s costing us right now.”

The Arizona coach indicated he’s going to reconsider how he’s using his bullpen arms. He said, “Right now we’ve got a couple guys that don’t throw enough strikes to be pitching at this level.”

It won’t be a difficult decision on Friday at 6 p.m. when Kurt Heyer gets the ball again as the Cal Bears come to town for another Pac-10 series.

Here are the rest of the results from around the conference last weekend:

ASU won all three vs. Oregon.
Scores: 5-2, 3-1, 8-0
The Ducks are the worst hitting team in the Pac-10 and no amount of uniform combinations is going to change that.

Cal won two of three vs. USC.
Scores: 6-10, 9-2, 9-6
Cal sits in a 1st place tie but the Bears’ schedule is backloaded with the league’s top teams.

UCLA won all three vs. Washington.
Scores: 2-1, 5-3, 3-2
The Pac-10’s third 1st place team is the second-worst hitting team in the conference, but you only have to score one more than the other guys.

Stanford won two of three at WSU.
Scores: 8-10, 22-3, 4-3
The Cougars started strong with an 8-run 8th to take the first game but the Cardinal bounced back to win the road series.

Those games brought about these rankings:

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

Oregon State’s road series win propelled the Beavers over both Arizona and UCLA in the rankings. Oregon’s oh-fer convinced that final poll to exclude the Ducks.

A word of advice if you’re coming to Frank Sancet Stadium to see Kurt Heyer and the Cats: Get to the park early and don’t dilly-dally with your Dippin’ Dots. The umps make sure that first pitch is in the air right on time if not a couple minutes early.

It’s up to the Wildcats to make that pitch a strike.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell didn’t think to get ejected when he was a bullpen catcher. Charge the mound on Twitter and Facebook.

It’s much better to win three surprisingly close games than to surprisingly lose.

Coach Andy Lopez doesn’t mind the close games. “It’s good,” he said. “It’s going to force these young guys to play the game properly. Learn to bunt, learn to hit-and-run.”

The UA didn’t hit any home runs in the series.

Continuing the pitching-and-defense theme that Lopez has preached since the start of the season, an interesting development has been junior Kyle Simon closing the gap on sophomore Kurt Heyer as the team’s ace. When comparing weekend starts Heyer has the slight ERA edge (1.42 to 1.57) but that may not be the most important stat.

“The whole thing for Friday night is you want a guy who’s going to set the tempo for the whole weekend,” said Lopez. “You need seven innings. You don’t want to go to your pen in the 4th and 5th innings.”

Heyer has pitched 19 innings in his three weekend starts while Simon has logged a total of 23. Those extra four outs a game could be the difference. “(Simon) may make a push before Pac-10 play for Friday night,” Lopez said.

It’s a good problem to have. The efforts of Simon and #3 starter Tyler Hale are the biggest causes for Arizona optimism. Hale has gotten into the 7th in each of his three starts with a 1.83 ERA.

You’re not always going to win the battle of aces on Friday nights, but if your #2 and #3 pitchers are better than their 2nd and 3rd guys you’re going to win a lot of series.

The Wildcats travel to UNLV for games this Tuesday and Wednesday before returning home for a three-game series against Northern Colorado starting Friday.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell is giving his bullpen a rest. Take the mound 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!

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.

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