Every team tends to hit a rough patch at some point during a season. For some teams that can last for a while and that is what Arizona is trying to avoid this week. The Wildcats dropped a midweek game to Michigan State Tuesday night in a loss that featured six errors by the Wildcats.

It was the third straight game UA had at least four errors in what has become a trend for Jay Johnson's 8-5 squad. The UA head coach preached positivity and getting in the right mindset after Tuesday's game. The Wildcats will welcome the College of Charleston into own this weekend for a three-game series set to begin Friday night.

As his team prepares for its next challenge positivity and finding the right frame of mind to be productive is still at the forefront of what Johnson has his team working on this week as he has suddenly become equal parts life coach and baseball coach.

"I think it's how you carry yourself and your actions and the attitude that we're all in this together," Johnson said Thursday about how he gets the positive message across to his players heading into Friday night's game. "Like I said the other night, this is our team. It would be one thing to have a day off, come back in here and throw together or say 'let's have a mundane, normal training day or practice plan. But, I think they sense the pulse of that there's thought into we're doing starting with what we met on today.

"A very simple principle of how long do you let failure play? Not just that, but also here's how we get past this. It's an individual choice of how you talk to yourself. If you talk to yourself the wrong way here's some strategies on how to talk to yourself the right way and to get that competitive, aggressive, present player going tomorrow night is really the goal."

Going back to earlier in the week Arizona's players have come back the idea that "it's just baseball" and games and stretches like the team is currently going through will happen over the course of the season. There hasn't been a lot of panic with the Wildcats just yet as a result of the fielding issues and handful of losses.

If not for a few bad innings early this season the Wildcats would be in a different spot talking about how much momentum the team has built out of the gate. That is certainly not something that has been lost on UA's players so the outlook continues to remain positive despite the struggles from some of their veterans.

"I wouldn't define it as a defensive crisis," catcher Matthew Dyer said Thursday. "I mean, yeah, there's been some struggles but at the same time the pitchers have been there to help pick us up when we need it. Hitters have been there to pick hitters up. At this point we're trying to tie everything together to make it to where we're in sync and going the way we want to go."

Coaches often talk about controlling attitude and this is the type of stretch that makes it necessary to have the right attitude. Johnson has been pleased with the response so far from his team, but he wouldn't expect it to be another way.

"Well you have to, you have no choice," he said. "Referencing tomorrow [Friday] night, you make tomorrow night about tomorrow night. What we don't want to do is let any carryover from, really, a poor inning performance creep into it. We talked about maybe we have done that a little bit. Like when it got a little rough the other night maybe there was some reminder of the New Mexico game or a couple errors from the other game last Saturday.

"So we don't want to do that. Like I said, we want to make it as temporary as possible and that is all a mindset thing. We're talking about ways to get them past that type of thing and get present. That's the most important thing for this team right now."

First pitch for the series opener Friday night against the College of Charleston is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Hi Corbett Field.