NCAA Baseball Tournament: Arizona holds off Cal Poly to end regional losing streak

EUGENE, Ore.—There’s no such thing as a bad postseason win.

Arizona’s offense was nonexistent save for one brief stretch early on, but thanks to another stellar starting pitching performance it hung on for a 3-2 win over Cal Poly on Friday afternoon in the NCAA Baseball Tournament at PK Park.

“We got the win,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “That’s all that matters, to be frank.”

The 2nd-seeded Wildcats (40-18) will face either Eugene Regional host Oregon or Utah Valley at 6 p.m. PT Saturday after winning their first NCAA tourney game since 2022. The UA had dropped five in a row, going 0-2 the previous two seasons including last year as a host.

Easton Breyfogle’s 2-out, 2-run home run in the bottom of the 2^nd proved the difference. Arizona scored all three of its runs that inning, with Tommy Splaine tripling ahead of him after Andrew Cain drew a 2-out walk. Those were the only two hits the Wildcats could get against Cal Poly (41-18).

It somehow was enough, as sophomore right-hander Owen Kramkowski went seven innings with one run allowed despite giving up eight hits, walking a batter and hitting one. Kramkowski (9-5) struck out seven and was often his best with runners in scoring position.

“I wouldn’t say I’m going into it differently, but maybe like the conscience that I have to get this guy out, it’s more important now,” Kramkowski said. “I feel like then I really just lock my stuff in and just focus on what’s the task at hand. Just kind of be able to slow the game out when I get guys on, because that’s the only way I’ll get out of it.”

During Arizona’s 6-game win streak its starting pitchers have yielded four earned runs in 35 innings, a 1.03 ERA.

Garrett Hicks allowed a solo homer to Cal Poly’s Cam Hoiland with one out in the 8^th, cutting Arizona’s lead to one, then Tony Pluta closed it out for his 13^th save to tie the single-season school record. Pluta gave up a leadoff single but then struck out the next batter before inducing a 5-4-3 double play to end it.

Arizona put two on in the bottom of the 1^st against Cal Poly’s Griffin Naess, who hit Aaron Walton and Mason White with 1 out, but Adonys Guzman grounded into a double play. The Wildcats had two down in the 2^nd when Cain drew a walk and Splaine roped a ball to right center that Mustangs center fielder Casey Murray Jr. slid for but it got past him and went to the wall.

That allowed Cain to score from first and Splaine to end up at third with Arizona’s 36^th triple of the season, most in Division I.

Three pitches later, Breyfogle hit one 382 feet to right center for a 3-0 lead.

“I saw a change-up up early in the count, and kind of stayed through it and then with it,” Breyfogle said. Arizona is 5-0 this season when he homers.

But other than that burst, the UA couldn’t solve Naess. He went seven innings and walked three with five strikeouts on 106 pitches, with most contact of the weak variety.

“I think our whole approach was obviously trying to see him up, he had a lot of stuff that would get us to chase down low,” Breyfogle said. “I think throughout the game, we kind of forgot what our plan was, and we didn’t execute that the second half of the game.”

Said Hale: “Their pitcher was incredible, and we knew that was going to be a tough matchup for us. We knew it going in. I think we had a great game plan … we were good early with it, and he just kept doing a great job and the pitching coach did a great job of coaching of calling pitches.”

Kramkowski stranded runners in scoring position in four of the first five innings before giving up a 1-out RBI single. He hit the next batter but then retired the last five he faced for his fifth quality start of the season.

Arizona’s win means it will play on the third day of a regional for the first time since 2022, when it lost to eventual College World Series champion Ole Miss in the Coral Gables final. Senior righty Raul Garayzar, who has allowed one run in 10.2 innings since moving into the weekend, rotation, will start Saturday’s game.