SCOTTSDALE – Arizona baseball came from behind to walk off USC 4-3 to win the Pac-12 Tournament Saturday night. Our recap of the game can be found here.
After the game, coach Chip Hale and players Tommy Splaine and Emilio Corona talked about the comeback victory, what it means to win the last-ever Pac-12 championship and why the team should be in contention to host an NCAA Tournament regional. Here’s what they said:
Hale on the late game dramatics: “The heart is good. I felt good when we tied the game. I was like, ‘man, what a great finish to the Pac-12.’ Not only baseball season but basically the sports history for this conference. And then we had the opportunity and Tommy came up, it’s funny because Tommy can have some at-bats where there are strikeouts and he’s not doing much. But it seems like when the the game’s on the line he has his best at-bats.”
Hale on the strategy in the ninth inning: “Well obviously Corona can run. He’s actually starting to throw now so he’s getting close to playing the outfield. We’ve talked all game about when he would go in to run. (Blake) McDonald was the guy. We had the one out, got him on, and basically just said, ‘hey, if you get a jump, go.’ He’s an elite bass stealer and got him to second and then obviously, they did what I would have done which is walk (Andrew) Cain, he’s a left handed hitter, and Tommy did a heck of a job and came through.”
Hale on whether he thought at some point Arizona would heat up at the plate: “It was tough. (Caden) Aoki had tremendous stuff tonight, and obviously was working on short rest. So at one point I was like, well, maybe he’ll just throw his pitch count and get him out of there. But finally we got to him a little bit. The defense was concerning early with the wind. … If we’re close, and that’s what our pitching does, and Cam (Walty) kept us close. And within three runs we’re gonna have a chance to win.”
Hale on Walty’s outing: “It wasn’t a lot of strikeouts. It was a lot of fly balls and ground balls and our guys made plays. I know there was some ugliness there early but I think as the game went on we played better defense.”
Hale on how the dugout handled the early inning struggles: “The dugout was great, the guys who weren’t playing. The guys that were playing, there may have been a little bit of frustration. Especially when you get into that no-hitter range, I’ve been in this situation before where, now all of a sudden you take too much up to the plate with you, like I got to break this no-hitter up. Maybe it was good. Maybe it’ll help us down the road.”
Hale on whether Arizona can make a case for hosting a regional: “Yeah I think so. We’re the Pac-12 regular season and tournament champion. I think we deserve to host. That’ll be up to somebody else. But you know, and like I told Andy (Stankiewicz), I mean, it’s too bad for them because they are playing great right now. I think Cal, I think Oregon, Oregon State, this conference is very hard. And we have great pitching in the conference. And Aoki showed you tonight.”
Hale on what it means to win the Pac-12 tournament in walk-off fashion: “Yeah, it was great to do it in the fashion. I don’t know, my heart is not gonna take too many of these more, but that’s how this team has been. We’ve kind of scrapped, found ways to win, found ways to score runs late. And like I said, it’s the last event here for this conference. It’s a sad deal that we’re not gonna be able to be a PAC 12 More but hey, we take ourselves into the Big 12 now.”
Hale on how he would describe Splaine’s season: “If he was a professional I’d say he’s a consummate professional because he has not let any of his struggles at the plate affect him on defense. That’s why he’s out there. He holds down that infield, and I’m just so happy that it was him that got the winning hit tonight.”
Hale on Mason White’s performance as Pac-12 Tournament MVP: “I thought he was great. I thought he was fantastic. He did some things that we haven’t seen a whole lot this year, the base hits the other way, the hard contact the other way. Those are things that he’s going to take into the playoffs, take into next year and it can really help him as a hitter.”
Hale on Andrew “Tonko” Susac’s scoreless ninth inning: “It was interesting because I had asked Kevin (Vance) who was gonna go out there and when I saw Tonko coming in, I said, Susac. So he goes out and it was beautiful. And it’s not easy to go out there as as a guy who usually comes in with a lead to keep keep it a zero that day.”
Hale on whether UA’s history of winning close games will help the team in the postseason: “I think it just gives a team confidence. This was really scary early. The at-bats were not great, the defense was not great and we stuck with it. And again, it’s all predicated on our starting pitching. When those guys keep us in the game we’ll have a chance.”
Splaine on whether he knew Corona would score on the game-winner: “Yeah, I mean, I got all trust in him. He’s been our best baserunners all year, and I trust him.”
Splaine on what it means to come through in that situation: “It means a lot, I just really wanted to pull through for this team. We all love each other. So that was just the big thing. It’s really just playing for the team.”
Splaine on his mindset as he walked to the plate: “Really just be confident, have fun. Didn’t have a great first two at bats. But yeah, just have fun, make an adjustment and that was just really just sitting off speed there and my hitting coach helped me out there.”
Splaine on the mentality in the dugout late in the game: “I mean, our mentality, it doesn’t really change to be honest with you. We always trust each other and we have full trust in what we have as a team and the guy next to us. So, yeah, we really didn’t really have our heads down at all. I mean, it didn’t go well at the beginning, but we knew what we could do.”
Splaine on what Aoki was doing well early in the game: “He’s a great pitcher. Gotta give him credit. He was mixing well. We started to get to him a little bit and stuck to our game plan. And yeah, that was just big for us.”
Splaine on what it means to be the final Pac-12 champion: “It means everything. I grew up an Arizona fan, diehard. Diehard Pac-12 fan. So this is a really big one for Arizona.”
Splaine on why Arizona should host in the tournament: “We’re great team. We love each other and I mean, you see what we can do, and just all that. We’re a fun team to watch. We all love each other, and I think we can do all damage in the postseason.”
Splaine on whether he was surprised the game came down to a walk-off: “I mean, yes, and no. It’s been happening a lot all year. But it just goes to show you that we trust each other and, you know, we’re really never out of as a team.”
Splaine on his process at the plate this year: “Starting in the fall. I started working with some different stuff. As the season has gone on obviously, it didn’t go as I wanted it to but my coaches and I have been just working hard just to keep improving and just sticking with it really.”
Splaine on whether the coaches said anything to him before the last at-bat: “I mean, they’re always just preaching just have fun, be confident. And going back to my hitting coach was helping us with some of the data we have on the other pitchers which definitely helped in that at bat.”
Corona on stealing second in the ninth: “I know his time to the plate, I know how fast I can get to second base, and then from there, it’s just about getting a good enough jump and after that it’s just trusting that I’m going to get there. I’d had two opportunities to pinch run in two earlier games and I kind of was feeling out, never really got good timing. And it just felt right. You know, it just felt like the right time to do it. They picked over once.”
Corona on deciding to go home on Splaine’s hit: “The ball was hit hard over his head and I just took off. “Toby DeMello was waving me home. I mean, he was trusting me and yeah, I made it happen.”
Corona on not being to play with his hand injury: ““Obviously, it’s been hard because I want to be out here and help the guys win games, and they’ve done a great job taking care of business. Support any way I can. Doesn’t do me any good to sit around the dugout and sulk, that does no one any good, so I just try and bring my best energy that I can to support the team as many ways as possible.”
Corona on how the team responded after struggling in early innings: “It was a little lull. I think we did a great job just staying with our plan, staying with our process and really keeping each other in the game. Everybody on the bench, players, everyone was keeping each other in the game, just telling everyone to trust it, we’re gonna get it, we’re gonna get it. And I think when we get into these late innings and we’re down one or two runs, maybe three runs, we’ve all known what we can do and we’ve done it before in the past and that just builds confidence for us.”
Corona on the wind giving outfielders trouble: “Yeah, you know the ball was carrying today. Yeah, it’s a tough outfield. You got the brick wall out there. Ball was flying a ton. And yeah, just some adjustments that we need to make when we get back to Tucson and we’ll handle that.”
Corona on Arizona’s ability win close games: “I think that just goes back to the constant belief we have in the dugout in each and every one of us. And it’s something that doesn’t go away throughout a game. I mean, we were getting no-hit through six innings and everyone in the dugout was picking each other up, picking each other up. And it’s just the culture that we’ve built throughout this year, and it’s really paying off.”