OMAHA, Neb. — College baseball seasons are long and meandering, making it difficult to isolate a turning point.
For Arizona, which practiced here Thursday in advance of its College World Series opener against Miami on Saturday, several options fit the description: The walk-off comeback victory over UCLA on March 26. The sweep at Cal a month later. The sweep at home against Oregon State two weeks after that.
But ask Wildcats coach Jay Johnson about a turning point, and he’ll point you to a loss. Specifically, a 4-2 setback at Oregon on May 21.
Let’s begin with the backdrop. Aside from that sweep against the Beavers, the Wildcats hadn’t played great baseball between late April and mid-May. Arizona dropped two of three against USC and Arizona State. The first game in Eugene resulted in the UA’s first — and only — shutout loss of the season.
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The Wildcats fell behind in the second game 2-0 but rallied to tie the score in the top of the sixth. They had a chance to take the lead in the seventh, but Ducks center fielder Austin Grebeck threw out Kyle Lewis at the plate.
After Oregon reclaimed the lead in the bottom half of the inning, Arizona threatened in the eighth and ninth. The Wildcats didn’t score, but Johnson saw something he hadn’t seen in a while: Arizona’s fighting spirit.
“It was cold. It was wet. Everything was hard,” Johnson said. “But in the middle of that Saturday game, we just got kind of our competitive mojo back. We lost the game 4-2. But … it just was like, ‘OK, this is our team.’ I felt like that has really carried over.”
Has it ever. Since that game, Arizona has won 12 of 13, including three consecutive elimination games in the Lafayette Regional and a two-game sweep at Mississippi State in the Super Regionals.
And to think: It all began with a defeat.
“That whole weekend, we weren’t really playing our best,” freshman left fielder Alfonso Rivas III said. “But that second game, we competed very well. Even though the result wasn’t there, we competed.”
The frame game
Freshman Cesar Salazar has started every game and caught almost every inning during Arizona’s postseason run. His defense has bordered on the spectacular, including a sliding, shin-guard-splitting catch of a popup near the third base dugout at Louisiana Lafayette’s M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.
Salazar has displayed his athleticism and quick feet all season. But a far subtler skill provides just as much value, if not more.
Salazar has become adept at framing pitches — the art of almost imperceptibly moving his glove to make balls look like strikes. Salazar said it was among the first skills he learned when he switched from middle infield to catcher as a teen in Hermosillo, Sonora.
“Him and Ryan (Haug, the backup catcher) do a really good job of that,” Johnson said. “We don’t strike out a ton of guys as a pitching staff. So when you have that, you need to get as many strikes as you can to keep yourself in advantage counts for the pitcher so you can throw what you want them to hit instead of having to maybe give in.
“Those guys have both done as good a job as anybody I’ve ever seen of getting us pitches.”
Salazar said one of the key aspects of framing is selecting which pitches to nudge toward the strike zone. As far as technique goes, he admires the work of St. Louis Cardinals eight-time Gold Glove winner Yadier Molina.
“He’s quiet with his hands,” Salazar said. “The low pitches, he makes them strikes like no other.”
Framing isn’t quantified in college baseball as it is in the big leagues. However, Arizona’s team ERA of 3.42 is its lowest since 1976, when the Wildcats had a 3.25 ERA and won their first national championship. Salazar’s framing of pitches has played a role in that.
“I can’t put a scale on it,” senior right-hander Nathan Bannister said earlier this season. “He gets me some low strikes that obviously help me and the whole pitching staff.”
Inside pitch
- The Wildcats left Hi Corbett Field around 8 a.m. Tucson time Thursday and flew by charter to Omaha, arriving around 1:30 p.m. CDT. The team took a brief tour of TD Ameritrade Park and practiced later in the afternoon at a local high school. Each team will practice for an hour at the stadium Friday.
- Miami is the No. 3 national seed, and the Hurricanes have earned it. Miami is 50-12 and has lost two series all season: against No. 1 seed Florida, which is playing in the other College World Series bracket; and against 2015 CWS champion Virginia, which has made 13 consecutive postseason appearances.
