Arizona Baseball are Pac-12 Champions and Regional Hosts

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Arizona faces Oregon for another crucial Pac 12 series. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-US PRESSWIRE

There’s nothing more beautiful than watching a bunch of Arizona State Sun Devil players look from the dugout in stunned disbelief as the Arizona Wildcats hoist the Pac-12 Championship trophy. It feels even better when Arizona earned the trophy by beating ASU in the final game of the regular season.

In the bottom of the 9th inning.

With two outs.

The Wildcats dominated the game early, taking a 7-1 lead that looked like batting practice, but with sloppy pitching allowed ASU to come back and eventually tie the game in the 8th inning. In fact, Arizona State almost took the lead, but Arizona escaped a close one with a nicely turned double play to end the inning. The momentum was leaning heavily in ASU’s favor.

But, in the bottom of the ninth, Riley Moore walked with one out and got to third on a single by Joey Rickard. With two outs, Johnny Field ripped the ball over the third baseman’s head and became the hero of the afternoon. After a hard fought game that nearly went four hours, the Wildcats came out on top as winner of the rivalry series and conference champions.

Oregon lost to Oregon State and UCLA beat USC, making UCLA and Arizona co-champs of the Pac-12 conference. The Pac-12 got more good news today: Oregon, UCLA, Stanford and Arizona will be 4 of 16 hosts for the NCAA regional playoffs next weekend.