Arizona Baseball plays 4 Josh in miracle win over Bruins

The Arizona Baseball team, down 5-1, scored four runs to even the score, all they needed was one more miracle run to win. They had some help from heaven.

Arizona Baseball infielder Sawyer Gieseke was heartbroken when a little boy who the team adopted as their motivator and advisor passed away about a month ago. But he wasn’t the only one, the entire team was affected, even Wilbur came to visit Josh Knight. Saturday’s game against the No. 18 UCLA Bruins was dedicated to Josh and his fight against cancer.

Sawyer explained to us that Josh was with the team since December of last year, “He became part of the team that, you know, we kind of inducted him as a member of the team last year last season. He got drafted in the Fall World Series this year..he got drafted first overall.” When Josh passed away, “It hurt,” Sawyer responded. There was no hiding how much this loss affected him, here is a message to Josh from Sawyer in his words:

We were curious how Josh contributed to the team, “He’s just always kind of been that rock for us, and a really good kid,” explained the infielder, “Always at the field, always smiling, not afraid to tell us the truth, he’d tell you when you are doing bad ‘Why are you doing this? You should have hit the ball instead of struck out!’ he’s never afraid to do that.”

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There were a lot of unique ways in which the team and the fans commemorated Josh, the fans wore yellow, and the team wore a Jared Oliva (Wildcats center fielder) designed ‘Vs. Cancer’ warmup shirt with a yellow ribbon to support the fight against cancer.

“Jared Oliva has been the man when it comes to this whole thing,” Sawyer explained, “He’s spearheaded everything. He started that whole ‘Versus (VS) Cancer’ thing, which yesterday was our first game wearing it.” The Wildcats used hashtag #4Josh in social media and branded on players arms, baseballs and yellow athletic tape to commemorate Josh and his fight against this deadly disease.

“‘4Josh is something we have taken on this year, it’s something we have kind of taken on as our mission statement,” said Sawyer.

Sawyer has a future in film, watch this tribute video that was played before the Cat’s third game against UCLA at Hi Corbett Field on their brand new ball-tested ginormous scoreboard. “I thought we could honor him and make a little video about what he means to us, and hopefully, the fans can get through it with us.”

Josh and his family bonded a lot, so much so, that his family continues to give the team advice. During a series of games at Rice University, Josh’s dad texted a coach, “A couple of days after Josh passed away, his dad texted one of our coaches and said, “Josh would tell you, ‘You’re not on vacation, get the job done.'”  The Cats did win two out of three games at Rice and lost the third game by only one run.

On Saturday, the Cats were playing for this brave little boy who was not shy, told them what he thought they should do to win a game, and is watching over the team.  He is their new ‘Angel in the Outfield.’ Bobby Dalbec‘s double falling just inside the foul line to drive in the miracle winning 6th run in the bottom of the ninth for a perfect and exciting ending. The fact that the win was against their Pac-12 nemesis was icing on the cake; you couldn’t have asked for more.

“Yesterday was an unbelievable game,” affirmed Gieseke, “Probably the best game I’ve ever been a part of..it’s one thing to come back from being down 5-1 in the ninth to upset a college powerhouse (UCLA), but then to have the whole ‘4Josh’ thing behind it, was huge too, it was unbelievable.” He felt they were meant to win the game, and gave Josh’s dad the lineup card after the game which was emotional and a great experience for everyone involved.

It was unanimous; the Wildcats felt Josh’s presence help lift their play and were happy that they could pay homage to their little hero in a remarkable and historic win for the ages. Not gonna to lie, it is entirely endearing to see how much these young men care about Josh and his family and hard to not shed a tear or two.

Grab a Kleenex; the team took to Twitter to shower their love on and pay tribute to their angel in the outfield.

Coach Jay Johnson wouldn’t be left out and gave his own shout out.

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Bear Down Josh! Thanks for lifting up and watching over our beloved Arizona Wildcat Baseball players. Know you made a difference in the world and will never be forgotten.

Editor’s note: When I got Sawyer on speaker phone, my cockatiel QT started singing and talking, uncharacteristically, ‘I love you’ and whistling ‘charge’ musical notes (both pertinent). He then, not something he ever does, flew to my shoulder from his cage and looked over the keyboard as I typed out the quotes from the interview. We were positive Josh, through QT, was making sure I got this article right. I certainly hope I hit it out of the park #4Josh!