EUGENE, Ore.—Yes, Arizona hit a school-record eight home runs on Saturday night to advance to its first regional final since 2022, also setting a school mark with 14 extra-base hits. And the 14 runs scored were the most in a postseason game since plating 16 in Game 3 of the 2021 Super Regionals.
But with the way the ball was blowing out at PK Park, a place that looks half the size of Hi Corbett Field, any team could have sent that many balls over the fence.
“It feels just like home right now,” Utah Valley coach Nate Rasmussen said after losing 14-4 to Arizona. “Any ball that kind of goes up, you hold your breath a little bit.”
Yet the Wolverines, who came into the game with 81 homers, 21 more than Arizona, did not hit one out. In fact, a team hitting over .300 managed just five hits, the only one for extra bases coming in the bottom of the 9th.
The day before, against Cal Poly, Arizona yielded a solo homer and 10 hits overall but just two runs. And during the Wildcats’ 7-game win streak they’ve allowed only 16 runs, with four homers.
UA coach Chip Hale credits pitching coach Kevin Vance for his pitch calling, both at small PK Park as well as the larger Globe Life Field where Arizona gave up only three runs in three games en route to the Big 12 Tournament title.
“In and out, up and down, and keep the guys off balance,” Hale said. “You’re going to have the occasional one that the guy clips, and like (Friday) that went over left field fence. Probably doesn’t go out at Hi Corbett, right? You just have to live with it, and if a couple go out, so be it.”
Arizona has allowed only 34 home runs this season, fewest among power-conference teams and second-fewest among NCAA Tournament teams. Northeastern has allowed 29.
The starting pitching has been at the forefront of the upswing, though on Saturday Raul Garayzar was pulled after loading the bases to start the 4th inning. In came Casey Hintz, who at the beginning of the year was Arizona’s pitching MVP with his bulk relief appearances but who appeared to hit a wall by the end of March.
Yet Hintz came in and limited Utah Valley to a pair of RBI groundouts and ended up retiring all nine batters he faced, striking out two and keeping the other seven in the infield.
“I know it’s either going to be a ground ball to me or a strikeout,” Mason White said of Hintz’s pitching.
Hintz, a junior right-hander, is 7-4 with a 5.29 ERA. He’s pitched 49.1 innings in 21 appearances, going three of more eight times. Saturday was his longest outing since April 11.
“I think in the middle (of the season) there I was going around hitters because I was getting hit around, and then I started walking guys,” he said. “And I think it was just really getting back to what I know I’m best at, and that’s throwing strikes and getting ground own balls. So I think I just trusted that again.”
Arizona got an unexpectedly stellar final three innings Saturday from junior righty Michael Hilker Jr., who struck out seven and allowed one hit to get his first career save. He came in with an 8.15 ERA thanks to a trio of bad outings but has struck out 25 in 20.2 innings.
By using only two relievers Saturday, as well as two Friday, Arizona has a mostly fresh bullpen for the possibility of two more games if it doesn’t take care of business Sunday night.
The waiting game
As the only team to start 2-0 in the Eugene Regional, Arizona is in the position where it can lose once and still advance with a win in a second game. But who the Wildcats will face may not be decided until an hour or so before first pitch.
Cal Poly (42-18) and Utah Valley (33-28) play at 3 p.m. PT, with the winner taking on the UA at 7 p.m. PT or at least 55 minutes after the previous game ends. Who the opponent is will also determine whether the Wildcats are the home or away team, one of many bits of uncertainty that exists.
“We don’t even know if we’re gonna wear white or gray, so we’ll bring both uniforms and take BP in the cage and get ready to go,” Hale said. “The mindset will be the same, just play nine innings the best we can and win a baseball game. And if it doesn’t work out that way, then we have to worry about the next day, but we just worry about one out at a time.”
Arizona has started 2-0 in the NCAA Tournament for the 13th time since 1975, sixth since the 4-team regional format began in 1999, advancing on 10 occasions. It has twice gone 3-0 on the road in a regional, in 2004 and 2008 in South Bend, Ind., and Ann Arbor, Mich., respectively.
The last time the UA won its first two regional games and didn’t make the next round was 2007 when it lost twice in a row to host Wichita State.
Mason’s mashes
White became the ninth Arizona player to hit three homers in a game—ironically the third to do so against Utah Valley—and first in the postseason. He now has 19 homers in 2025, same as a year ago, and with 48 for his career he’s only seven behind Shelley Duncan’s school record from 1999 to 2001.
A 7th-inning double was his 44th extra-base hit this season, five back of Trevor Crowe’s mark from 2005, and with 110 for his career he’s tied Dave Stegman’s school record done in four seasons (1973-76).
Yet when White came up in the top of the 4th, having already homered twice and with two teammates going yard that inning, he showed bunt and actually fouled an attempt on a 1-0 count.
“They were giving it to me,” said White, referring to the heavy shift with the third baseman playing deep at short. “If I got a pitch to do it on of course I would. The count kind of dictates that, the score, but 100 percent. If the game was closer, later in the game, when I came back up with a full shift, absolutely.”
Two pitches later he parked his third homer, this one to dead center.
“Three home runs in a game, I’ve never even done that,” said Hale, who played 255 games at Arizona, 991 in the minor leagues and 333 in MLB.
Asked which of the homers by someone other than him he liked the most, White noted the solo shot Brendan Summerhill hit in the 4th and Garen Caulfield’s opposite field bomb in the 8th that broke the school record.
“Garen going backside here, that just shows how good a hitter he is, even though he may not have his best nights every night, but it just shows that he’s dangerous whenever he comes to the plate, especially in a park like this,” White said. “And then Summer going big fly finally, because we’ve been giving him a lot for hitting top of the wall. And he’s hit a lot of balls that should have gone out.”