Just when you thought emotions couldn’t run any hotter in Tucson and the University of Arizona, the College World Series and Arizona baseball collided.
The Wildcats had a magical, 2012-like run through the postseason this year with a group of players that head coach Jay Johnson could only describe as “special” following the loss to Coastal Carolina. They had a chance to cap off what no other UA team of any sport has accomplished since the baseball program last won a championship four years ago.
Arizona basketball has lost two Elite Eights in heartbreaking fashion and the football program has finished runner-up in the Pac-12 Conference and lost a Fiesta Bowl by a mere eight points since the Wildcats’ baseball national title win over South Carolina in 2012.
Add 2016 Arizona baseball to the recent list of seamlessly never-ending heartbreak.
It was all going the Wildcats’ way again. After being predicted to finish ninth in the Pac-12, Arizona was rolling and playing like champions for five weeks in the postseason and into the College World Series.
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The Wildcats maintained a nearly perfect fielding percentage (.984) in Omaha, scored in the first inning in four straight games and five of its last seven. The Wildcats were first in batting average (.271) among teams that played more than 10 postseason games and first in ERA (2.25), according to NCAA.com.
Arizona entered game three of the championship series with two errors in seven games, but the Wildcats saw their title aspirations unravel in one play with two outs in the sixth.
Second baseman Cody Ramer, who was positioned perfectly in a shift toward the middle, mishandled a routine ground ball before throwing it away to allow the first two runs of the game to score.
“All year he’s probably been the most important player for us,” Arizona starting pitcher Bobby Dalbec said in the postgame presser. “We’ve all made errors before, it stings and that one stung a lot.”
Carolina slugger G.K. Young abominated a home run in the sixth to make it 4-0. Zero of ace Dalbec’s four runs allowed were earned runs, and the Chanticleers never reached home again.
“Middle innings will win and lose ballgames and they lost us one today,” Dalbec said.
Perhaps the most crushing blow in the Wildcats’ heartbreak was the manner they lost the game in the bottom of the ninth.
Down 4-3 with two outs and runners on second and third, Arizona’s backup catcher Ryan Haug, who only came in to replace the injured Cesar Salazar, had a chance to send the Wildcats home champions but struck out on a full count.
Three balls, two strikes, two outs, with the winning run standing on second to win the College World Series.
Does it get and closer than that?
Losing by one in a championship game carries enough agony and bitterness in itself. That’s not to mention the fact Wildcat fans thought they scored that run to go ahead in the third inning when Ramer appeared to slide under a tag at home plate, only to be called out.
Incredible photo by @Stitch_Head of that play at the plate in the 3rd inning. Note Ramer’s fingertips touching plate pic.twitter.com/hyS4DLzrnr
— Aaron Fitt (@aaronfitt) July 1, 2016
Wasn't close actually. He was safe, easily.
— stunna (@stunnaIo) June 30, 2016
Arizona athletics, the Tucson community and Wildcats fans everywhere have grown accustomed to gut-wrenching losses late in the postseason.
Should they have even been surprised?
Even when fans least expected their team to be there, it happened.
This season’s baseball team had the chance to dig Tucson out of its championship drought—one that has seen its prolific basketball program go 0-for-19 in title quests over the past two decades.
Arizona basketball will kick its season off as a Pac-12 favorite and national title contender. Arizona football will be projected to rebound from its mediocre season following its own heartbreak in the Fiesta Bowl. And Jay Johnson will have his Wildcats ready to roll in 2017.
The conclusion of this season only adds to the spectacle that was the 2012 Arizona Wildcats. Winning the College World Series is no easy feat, even when you claw within one win from the national title.
The 2016 Arizona Wildcats proved just that.
In the end, the red and blue just weren’t able to cap it off. After a rain delay, a controversial call at the plate, two errors in one play, the hardest hit ball in the College World Series and four unearned runs later, it was just too much.
Next: College World Series - Arizona Baseball Photo Gallery
The baseball title the Wildcats brought to Tucson four long years ago will always help, but only one thing will be able to exhume Arizona of its growing history of bitter disappointment—the one thing that has become so elusive in Tucson: National Championships.