The minimal sleep and quick turnarounds of tournament baseball will definitely catch up to you sooner rather than later, which seems to be exactly what happened Monday when Arizona saw its season end with a 22-6 loss to Ole Miss in NCAA regional play in Coral Gables, Fla.
The Wildcats (39-25) finished 2-2 in the regional while playing four games in three days.
The 22 runs they gave up in the elimination game marked a season-high, as Ole Miss (35-22) slugged 5 home runs in the blowout to secure the regional championship and advance to the NCAA Super Regionals.
Right-hander Chandler Murphy could not make it out of the second inning after giving up his second home run of the game and only pitched 1 1/3 innings while giving up four runs and three hits with two walks and one strikeout.
Arizona particularly had a hard time against regional MVP Tim Elko, who went 4-for-4 with 3 home runs against the Cats pitching staff and was responsible for driving in 5 of the Rebels' runs.
“He hit everything,” Wildcats coach Chip Hale. “You know we tried to go in on him a little bit there to maybe neutralize him, but you know he was good enough to take those pitches and drew the walk that time and then anytime the pitch was out over the plate he got good barrel on it and the ball was flying pretty good today. He just was superior to what we could do.”
It didn't particularly matter who was on the mound for Arizona in this one.
The burnout was real for the bullpen as the Wildcats combined to give up 18 runs (16 earned) with rough outings coming across the board as Eric Orloff was charged with 3 earned runs in 3.0 innings, George Arias Jr. yielded 3 ER in 1/3 of an inning, Holden Christian was charged with 2 ER while also getting one out, Chris Barraza gave up 3 ER also in 1/3 of an inning, Jonathan Guardado gave up 1 ER in 2/3 of an inning and Josh Randall yielded 4 ER over the final 3 frames.
Offensively, Arizona battled hard but was unable to overcome the powerful bats of Ole Miss despite hitting 3 home runs of their own. Designated hitter Blake Paugh (2-for-4) led the way with 2 homers, which is his second game during regionals where he had a 2-home-run game. Right fielder Tanner O’Tremba capped off his good tournament with a 2-for-4 day with a 2-run home run in the first inning.
The loss does not only mean the end of the 2022 season for the Wildcats but it is also the end of the college career of catcher Daniel Susac (2-for-4), who is a projected early first round draft pick in the upcoming MLB Draft. Susac leaves the program after being one the program’s most decorated catchers, becoming the 10th Wildcat all-time to record 100 hits in a season.
“Yeah, I was telling my family the other day,” Susac said about the state of the program under Hale and his decision to come to Arizona. “I think the second-best decision I ever made was coming to Arizona, but I think the best one was staying here. I don’t think the program can be in better hands. I think the coaching staff and the players all understand it, they get it and I think it’s in great hands for the rest.”
Team home run leader Chase Davis, who capped off his season going 1-for-4, was also very hopeful for the future and proud of the effort the team showed throughout the duration of the season.
“Just blessed to be surrounded and be with guys like this to my right and guys that are walking on our bus right now,” Davis said about the team. “They’re family and I love these guys. We play the game that we love each and every single day with each other. That’s something growing up that we started getting into, but as you get older you start to meet new people and they’re life friends.”
Other notable batters for Arizona were Garen Caulfield (1-for-3, RBI) Tony Bullard (1-for-3) and Nik McClaughry (1-for-5).
With their 2022 season over, Chip Hale and Co. look ahead to 2023 and look to construct a roster capable of making another run to Omaha.
