At this point in its final Pac-12 season, Arizona was below .500 both overall and in league play. It went on to win the regular season and conference tournament titles, reaching the NCAA Tournament for a fourth straight year while hosting a regional.
A big part of that surge from mediocrity to the postseason was the play of Brendan Summerhill, who led the Wildcats with a .324 batting average and ranked second on the team in home runs (eight) and RBI (59). It was Summerhill’s walk-off home run in extra innings against UCLA this weekend a year ago that began a run of 11 straight victories.
Summerhill, a projected 1st round pick in this year’s MLB Draft, was off to an even better junior season, hitting .409 with two homers, 24 RBI and a Division I-leading six triples. But the UA right fielder will be out of action for about a month after fracturing his right hand last weekend at West Virginia.
“You don’t make up for it,” UA coach Chip Hale said when asked about Summerhill’s absence. “Leading off the game like he does, being our leadoff hitter, and being on base as much as he does, and big clutch hits as he got all last year and this year. So we just have to bide our time and fill in. We just have to keep battling and find different ways to score runs.”
Wednesday’s 8-6 win over Seattle saw Hale move everyone up a spot in the batting order, with center fielder Aaron Walton taking over the leadoff spot. Summerhill’s position in the field was taken by freshman Gunner Geile though redshirt sophomore TJ Adams is likely to handle that role this weekend when No. 23 Arizona (19-5, 5-1 Big 12) hosts Baylor (17-7, 2-4).
“We’ll just be just fine with our talent,” sophomore Easton Breyfogle said. “We’re super deep this year, like we’ve already seen that.”
Breyfogle had missed the previous seven games with a quad injury before returning Wednesday and hitting his second home run of the season. Adams had filled in for him in left.
“We’re lucky TJ is ready, TJ can play right field,” Hale said. “It’ll be TJ in right and Breyfogle in left and Walton.”
Walton, who also homered on Wednesday, is Arizona’s stolen base leader with eight in nine tries. He’s also walked 15 times and been hit by 10 pitches, his .487 on-base percentage almost as good as Summerhill’s .500.
“I talked to the coaches a couple weeks ago, like, what would it look like if Walton led off and Summerhill hit second?,” Hale said. “Walton has been really good stealing bases, so he gets a shot now.”
Recapping last weekend
Summerhill wasn’t the only regular who missed time at West Virginia. Senior second baseman missed the first two games with an illness—“I was in my hotel room just fighting demons in there,” he said—before returning Sunday and going 1 for 4 with three runs scored in the series-clinching 11-4 win.
Caulfield then hit a 2-run homer on Wednesday, putting him back in the team lead with 27 RBI.
His absence saw Richie Morales start in his place, with the junior getting a hit in both games including the go-ahead 2-run single in the 16th inning on Friday after Morales had been 0 for 7 with six RBI.
“Coach has just been telling us, next man up, and we got guys on the bench who can do damage, and we’re gonna use a bunch of them and give them our best shot,” Caulfield said.
Last weekend began with UA pitchers setting a school record with 29 strikeouts on Friday, two off the NCAA single-game record, and ended with catcher Adonys Guzman becoming Public Enemy No. 1 of Mountaineers fans thanks to his 2-homer game and interactions with the crowd. Coming out of that trip with the series win, the third in the last four conference road series dating back to last April, keeps the UA tied for first in the Big 12 with Kansas State.
“The energy of the crowd got them going a little bit,” Hale said. “It got real testy as as the series went on, obviously 16 innings is going to be that way. And then by Sunday it was crazy. It was a good test for the guys, but we got to bring that energy every game, whether we’re here, whether there’s nobody in the stands, we have to be able to bring it.”
Bear reunion
Arizona’s Friday night starter, redshirt sophomore right-hander Collin McKinney, will be facing his former team when the Wildcats’ open the series with Baylor on Friday night. McKinney went 3-6 with a 6.70 ERA for the Bears last season before going into the transfer portal and joining the UA.
Hale is hoping McKinney won’t let the emotions of squaring off against Baylor won’t play too big a role.
“I think just the way (pitching coach) Kevin (Vance) teaches is just one pitch at a time, and execute that pitch and not worry about what the other uniform looks like,” Hale said. “But that’s just a natural thing, and I think it’s going to be interesting to see how he handles it. And we have to be cognizant of that as as he goes on, and how many pitches he gets, how tired he gets. Is it going to be more tiring for him, trying to do great against his old team?”
Going deep into a game has been an issue for McKinney, who is averaging less than 4.1 innings per start. He’s yet to earn a win despite a 1.40 ERA and .191 opponent batting average because of 15 walks and seven hit batters in 26.2 innings.
“The other night he was throwing the ball great, striking guys out, and then he started to walk guys and couldn’t find the zone,” Hale said. “If he can stay in the zone, he can give us seven innings easy, just with his stuff.”
Power surge?
With the biggest ballpark at the power-conference level, Arizona is never going to lead its conference in home runs. The Wildcats have only 21 in 24 games, second-fewest in the Big 12 ahead of only Utah (12).
But they hit four in the finale at West Virginia and three more against Seattle, increasing the season total by 50 percent.
“Weather,” Hale said when asked what led to the recent surge. He said the wind was blowing out Sunday in Morgantown, while Wednesday was one of the first times the wind wasn’t blowing in at Hi Corbett Field.
It’s starting to heat up in Tucson, with the first 90-degree day already in the books, so Arizona could be launching more often. Baylor has allowed 14 homers in six Big 12 games.