Five Arizona baseball players earned All-Pac-12 honors Thursday — the most of any school and the most for the Wildcats since 2012.
The five are first baseman/outfielder Ryan Aguilar, starting pitcher Nathan Bannister, relief pitcher Bobby Dalbec, outfielder Zach Gibbons and second baseman Cody Ramer.
Aguilar led the Wildcats with six home runs and 42 RBIs while batting .314. The RBI total tied for eighth in the conference. He tied for second in the league with 18 doubles.
Bannister led the conference in innings (112º), tied for second in wins (nine) and ranked fifth in strikeouts (84). He held opposing batters to a .201 average.
Dalbec, who also starts at third base, tied for seventh in the Pac-12 with seven saves. His eight wins tied for fourth. Dalbec earned all-conference honors last season as well.
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Gibbons finished second in the league with a .385 average, just two percentage points behind Pac-12 batting champion David Oppenheim of USC. Gibbons led the conference with 84 hits, one more than classmate Ramer, who batted .356 (fourth) and paced the league in triples (eight).
Dalbec, a junior, is the only non-senior among the Wildcats honored by the conference Thursday. Arizona is in Lafayette, Louisiana, preparing for Friday’s NCAA regional matchup against Sam Houston State.
UA junior left-hander JC Cloney earned honorable-mention recognition after posting a 6-3 record with a 2.38 ERA, the fifth-best in the conference.
“I’m very pleased and I’m very proud of them, especially when you look at the guys that made it,” UA coach Jay Johnson said. “Ryan and Cody were not everyday players last year. Nathan and Zach were steady players but have emerged into real guys.
“When you look at Bobby, the step forward in his pitching development was a big deal in our success; he was able to finish a bunch of games we needed to win. And we wouldn’t be here without JC.”
Cal sophomore catcher Brett Cumberland was named Pac-12 player of the year. Oregon State produced the defensive player of the year (junior catcher Logan Ice) and freshman of the year (second baseman Nick Madrigal). Washington closer Troy Rallings was named pitcher of the year. Utah’s Bill Kinneberg, a UA grad and former Wildcats assistant, was named coach of the year. The Utes won the Pac-12’s regular season title. All awards were determined by a polling of Pac-12 coaches.
Inside pitch
- Johnson won’t reveal his starting pitcher for the regional opener until game day. It’s expected to be Bannister or Cloney.
- The Wildcats worked out at Tulane University on Wednesday evening after arriving in New Orleans and had another workout in Lafayette midday Thursday.
- The UA had dry conditions for both workouts, but rain might be unavoidable this weekend. The forecast as of Thursday evening called for an 80 percent chance of thunderstorms Friday-Sunday.
- Johnson said the Arizona State series could serve as a learning experience for Arizona. The May 13-15 series in Tucson drew huge crowds, but the Wildcats didn’t play their best baseball. “It helped us the last eight games,” Johnson said, “and it will help us this weekend.”
