Things are going pretty well
The offseason is here, with all of Arizona’s sports done for 2024-25 season and the 2025-26 campaigns still a little ways away.
Which makes this a great time to step back and see how all of the Wildcats’ programs are doing and how they’ve handled the move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at each of the UA’s men’s and women’s athletic programs to see what shape they’re in and what prospects they have for the near future. We’ll break down each team and evaluate how it is performing under its current coaching staff, looking at the state of the program before he/she arrived and comparing it to now while also evaluating how that program fits into its new conference.
Next up: Chip Hale’s baseball team
How it looked before
Under Jay Johnson from 2016-21 Arizona reached the College World Series twice, making it to the CWS championship series in Johnson’s first year before losing to Coastal Carolina in three games. He got the Wildcats back to Omaha in 2021, only to go 0-2, and little did we know he was already on the way out the door during that quick exit.
Within days Johnson had left for LSU, where he has become the fastest coach to win two national titles at a school with championships in 2023 and last month. Arizona wasn’t able to compete with the offer presented by one of the most storied programs in college baseball, and suddenly all the momentum built under Johnson was at risk of going away.
Arizona turned to one of its most decorated alums in Hale to take over the program. A member of the 1986 CWS title team, Hale had managed in the minor leagues and Major League Baseball and won championships in both but he’d never coached in college. The athletic director at the time, Dave Heeke, was a big baseball guy and was confident Hale could make the transition.
Where things stand now
The UA made it back to Omaha this year, the fourth under Hale, continuing a trend of reaching the CWS every fourth NCAA Tournament since the program moved to Hi Corbett Field in 2012. The Wildcats lost both games, each seeing their bullpen give up a lead late after being so solid all season long, but just returning to the World Series was a major achievement and confirmed Hale as the right choice.
AD Desiree Reed-Francois rewarded Hale with a 4-year contract extension late last month, locking him in through the 2030 season. Hale is 152-96 in his four seasons, one win fewer than Johnson and 11 more than Andy Lopez.
Arizona is riding a run of five consecutive NCAA tourney appearances, its longest since going 14 years in a row from 1950-63. Extending that streak in 2026 may depend on which draft-eligible players return for next season. The Wildcats are sure to lose outfielders Brendan Summerhill (a projected 1st round pick) and Aaron Walton as well as shortstop Mason White but could also see catcher Adonys Guzman and several relievers get drafted and sign.
The UA did not have any significant losses to the transfer portal, which has mostly been the case under Hale, and it’s so far added five players (three pitchers, two position players). The biggest loss may have been pitching coach Kevin Vance, who left to become head coach at San Diego State, but John DeRouin was promoted from within and gets back 2025 breakout arms Smith Bailey and Owen Kramkowski.
Big 12 vs. Pac-12
Arizona won the final regular season and conference tournament titles in the Pac-12, both in walkoff fashion, and followed that up by taking the Big 12 Tournament championship in its first season after tying for fourth place. There was a lot of new for the Wildcats in terms of opponents and venues in 2025, and next year they’ll be playing Kansas, Kansas State and UCF for the first time as conference foes.
The biggest change for Arizona was the amount of time it spent in Texas, compared to what it would regularly spend on the West Coast. The Wildcats played three tourneys in the Lone Star State and also played series at Houston and Texas Tech as opposed to the Pac-12 years where they’d go to Los Angeles, the Bay Area and somewhere in Oregon and Washington every season.
Overall, though, the depth of the Big 12 bodes better for Arizona come the postseason. The conference got seven teams into the NCAA tourney, far more than the Pac-12 would get annually.
One big question
Can the momentum be sustained? As noted earlier, Arizona is on a pattern of reaching the College World Series every fourth tourney (2012, 2016, 2021, 2025). But the year after those trips to Omaha have either resulted in an exit in the regionals (2017, 2022) or missing the tourney altogether (2013).
The UA has not had consecutive years making the Super Regionals since that format was introduced in 1999, and its last back-to-back CWS trips were 1985-86. Hale was a sophomore on the first of those teams, which went 0-2, and a year later the Wildcats won the school’s third of four national titles.