Coach Andy Lopez meets with pitcher Kurt Heyer during the sixth inning of the game against Florida State last Friday. Photo by Matt Ryerson-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats get three days off from games at the College World Series, leaving coach Andy Lopez with the most pleasant of decisions.

Does he come back with ace Kurt Heyer on Thursday?

By winning its first two games in Omaha, UA avoids the longer, tougher road of the losers’ bracket, thereby preserving its pitching staff and putting more good options on the table for Lopez.

His choices are Heyer, who pitched 7 2/3 innings Friday night in a 12-inning win over Florida State, or sophomore James Farris.

Farris (7-3, 4.18) is the usual third pitcher in the rotation behind Heyer and Konner Wade.

“Haven’t made a definite decision,” Lopez said on Monday afternoon during an interview on 1290-AM KCUB. “But I’m leaning very heavily toward throwing Kurt.”

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Kurt Heyer entered Friday's game with a 12-2 record and a 2.03 ERA. J&L Photo

Arizona coach Andy Lopez knows. You give Kurt Heyer the ball, don’t ask for it back.

Lopez didn’t want to ask for the ball. He went as long as reasonably possible with Heyer on Friday afternoon, when temperatures hovered around 100 degrees and the pressure-cooker was on an even higher setting.

Lopez sent Heyer out for the 10th inning against St. John’s in the first game of an NCAA Super Regional, hoping to coax one more inning out of his junior ace and stay away from what has been an unreliable bullpen.

Heyer managed only one more out, though. The Red Storm scratched out a run on an infield hit, a passed ball and a double that landed just fair down the left-field line. That was Heyer’s 129th pitch of the game.

That was it. Lopez signaled for reliever Mathew Troupe. Let’s just say Heyer wasn’t too thrilled with the coach’s decision.

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Kurt Heyer

Major league teams selected 75 right-handed pitchers before Arizona Wildcats’ junior ace Kurt Heyer was drafted near the bottom of the sixth round.

Everyone knows why Heyer didn’t get picked higher. He doesn’t have the fastball velocity that wows scouts and leads to projections of being a top-of-the rotation starter at the next level.

“I think it was a fair selection,” Heyer said of being taken 210th overall by the St. Louis Cardinals.

“Everybody is expecting to go higher, but I guess it just wasn’t my time in the early rounds. I’m just really happy I was able to be picked up by somebody. Not everybody gets this opportunity.”

In college, Heyer doesn’t take a backseat to many. He earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors, and Collegiate Baseball selected him as a second-team All-American. He is 12-2 with a 2.03 ERA and will start Friday when the Wildcats take on St. John’s in the first game of an NCAA Super Regional, beginning at noon at Hi Corbett Field.

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Alex Mejia has played in 175 games at Arizona, starting each one at shortstop. Photo by Andy Morales, TucsonCitizen.com

Major league baseball will begin its three-day draft on Monday night, but a flurry of Arizona Wildcats will be more focused on the second day.

Arizona has several draft-eligible, draft-worthy players, led by five juniors — outfielder Robert Refsnyder, pitcher Kurt Heyer, shortstop Alex Mejia, third baseman Seth Mejias-Brean and outfielder Joey Rickard.

“Refsnyder is the one guy everybody loves, but, boy, they really like Alex,” coach Andy Lopez said of the pro scouts.

Refsnyder, the Cats’ cleanup hitter, is batting .353 with team highs of six home runs and 61 RBIs.

“Just the aptitude to hit,” Lopez said on what scouts like about Refsnyder. “He has good bat speed; he’s just a good hitter.”

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Andy Lopez is a winner in his first postseason home game as Arizona's head coach. Photo by Anthony Gimino, TucsonCitizen.com

RELATED LINK: Arizona-Missouri game blog — Relive the game action

So, this is why Arizona Wildcats coach Andy Lopez wanted to play home games in the postseason.

The Wildcats bounced some key hits off their rock-hard infield and sprayed liners all over the outfield, where Missouri miscalculated by often playing too shallow in spacious Hi Corbett Field.

Meanwhile, pitching ace Kurt Heyer would have been dominant anywhere.

The end result was a 15-3 victory in front of 5,086 fans in the first round of an NCAA regional, with UA advancing to play Louisville at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. This is Arizona’s first postseason appearance at home since 1992.

“It helped,” Lopez said of playing at Hi Corbett. “It definitely helped.”

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Arizona Wildcats baseball coach Andy Lopez made a mistake. Once.

He was the head coach at Florida at the time, in 1997, and he said he didn’t pitch his ace in the first game of a NCAA regional. The matchups didn’t work out, and the Gators didn’t get out of regional play.

“Yeah, I did it once,” Lopez said.

Never again.

Lopez isn’t messing around, isn’t going to play games with the first game, as Arizona begins postseason play.

Yes, junior ace Kurt Heyer is starting tonight when the Wildcats, seeded first in the Tucson regional, take on fourth-seeded Missouri at 8 p.m. at Hi Corbett Field. Second-seeded New Mexico State takes on No. 3 Louisville starting at 4 p.m.

“Man, it’s a gamble,” Lopez said of saving the ace for a potentially tougher second-round game.

“If you come out (with a win), boy, you’re feeling pretty good the next morning. But, man, are you in the tank if it doesn’t happen.”

Besides, it’s not as a No. 4 seed is a walk-over opponent, Lopez said. The Tigers are coming off a Big 12 tournament championship.

Heyer, who was selected a second-team All-American on Thursday by Collegiate Baseball, is 11-2 with a 2.03 ERA. He has struck out 91 and walked 20 in 119 2/3 innings. Heyer has six complete games in 15 starts.

“He’s a machine on the mound,” said third baseman Seth Mejias-Brean. “He’s definitely that guy who clears everything out and just focuses. He’s a bulldog on the mound.”

Missouri is slated to start lefty Blake Holovach, who is 7-4 with a 4.60 ERA. He is actually the Tigers’ No. 2 starter, but Missouri is holding back Rob Zastryzny, who pitched twice in the Big 12 tournament last weekend.

“He’s going to compete for us,” catcher Ben Turner said in a press conference Thursday. “He’s not going to be intimidated. He’s seen and beat some the Big 12′s best pitchers, and he’s confident coming off last week.”

The sun setting behind the right-field wall at Hi Corbett? Not a bad way to start the season.

Peanuts! Cracker Jack! Beer!

Plenty of memories come back while walking through Hi Corbett Field more than a hour before first pitch. The Cleveland Indians. Colorado Rockies. The Tucson Toros.

If you are of a certain age, perhaps you saw DiMaggio, Mays, Mantle and Williams play here in this historic patch of central Tucson.

Friday night was the beginning of the latest chapter.

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team has freshened up the old stadium (opened in 1927) and branded it as its own — with “A” logos, splashes of cardinal and navy, plaques in the concourse honoring past legends, signs on the outfield wall honoring the school’s three national championship teams.

“I’m continuing to hear stories about people’s history with Hi Corbett — where they sat as a kid, remembering certain games, remembering certain players who played here,” said Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne, who mingled through the crowd before the game.

“You can tell, there is a real natural affinity between baseball and Hi Corbett and our community.”

And it never hurts to win.

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Arizona went in the order in the ninth against Ross Stripling. Cole Frenzel bounced out to shortstop. Robert Refsnyder flied out to center. And then pinch-hitter Johnny Field also flied out to center.

Texas A&M, on the strength of its two-out rally in the eighth, won 3-0 to take the final game of an NCAA regional in College Station, Texas. The Aggies advance to an NCAA Super Regional against Florida State.

The Wildcats, who had seven hits, end the season with a record of 39-21.

BOX SCORE

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Texas A&M’s leading hitter, Big 12 Player of the Year Tyler Naquin, got into scoring position in the bottom of the eighth with a two-out double.

With relievers Bryce Bandilla and Matt Chaffee ready, coach Andy Lopez stayed with starter Kurt Heyer … but his first pitch to Krey Bratsen was hit up the middle for an RBI single, giving the Aggies a 1-0 lead.

Bandilla came in, and Bratsen stole second base. Arizona then issued an intentional walk so the lefty-Bandilla could face left-handed-hitting Jacob House, who nonetheless delivered a two-run double for a 3-0 lead.

Kyle Simon finished the inning for Arizona by getting one out.

One final at-bat for the Cats …

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Arizona had something cooking in the eighth against Texas A&M reliever Nick Fleece. A two-out single by Seth Mejias-Brean and an infield hit by Joey Rickard set the table for Bryce Ortega, who bounced into a force out to the third baseman.

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Arizona Wildcats sophomore right-hander Kurt Heyer, who is scheduled to start the first game of an NCAA regional on Friday, was chosen a third-team Louisville Slugger NCAA Division I All-American, as announced by Collegiate Baseball on Thursday morning.

From a UA news release:

With an 8-3 record and a 2.32 earned run average, Heyer did not disappoint in his second season with the Wildcats. He earned Freshman All-American honors from various publications, including Collegiate Baseball last year, and was tabbed as a preseason third team All-American by Collegiate Baseball back in February.

Heyer, a native of Huntington Beach, Calif., racked up 127 strikeouts in the 2011 regular season, which ranked second in the Pac-10 and checked in third-most in the nation. He issued just 24 walks in 124.0 innings, which was the third-highest total in the country. He had two complete games.

Earlier this week, Heyer was one of six Arizona players named to the Pacific-10 All-Conference team. Last year, Heyer was also an All-Conference honoree as a true freshman.

Heyer is scheduled to start the first game of the College Station Regional on Friday when the Wildcats take on Seton Hall. First pitch is scheduled for 12:35 p.m. CDT at Olsen Field in College Station, Texas.

Where does the hiring of athletic director Greg Byrne rate on your list?
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

The “best of the year” lists are always tricky.

For the calendar year that was in Arizona Wildcats athletics, do you pick specific games, specific moments, or do you go with larger themes?

Do you choose only the good things? How do you balance the happenings in football and men’s basketball with the success in other sports?

When our Gannett big brother, the Arizona Republic, asked us to come up with a top 10 list of storylines for UA, we muddled through all that and came up with the following Top 10 list.

You can see the Republic’s Year in Review slideshows for all the state-wide sports topics on azcentral.com.

Before you click on that link, vote in our poll and let us know what you you think is the biggest storyline of the year for the Wildcats.

(What did we miss? I’ll get us started: I think basketball coach Sean Miller signing a Top 5 recruiting class in November is potentially worthy of the list as the clearest signal yet that he can restore the program to its previous heights.)

Anyway, on to the Top 10 storylines …

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