Opening Day has arrived as Arizona Baseball begins season in Texas

It’s officially baseball season for No. 15 Arizona Baseball, as the Wildcats are in Arlington, Texas for the State Farm College Baseball Showdown.

Well, it’s safe to say the winter months have been miserable for baseball fans as the MLB and MLB Players Association continue to bicker over things that could easily become solved with some common sense and rationality. However, as of tomorrow none of that matters as college baseball and our beloved Arizona Baseball team are back in action.

And coincidentally, in all of the places for the Wildcats to play, Arizona will take part in the State Farm College Baseball Season Showdown inside a Major League ballpark at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

Also of note, Chip Hale returns to the last ballpark he coached in before joining the Wildcats, as the then Detroit Tigers’ bench coach was in Arlington to take on the Texas Rangers.

This weekend, the No. 15 Wildcats will spend their time in Texas taking on Kansas State on Friday, Oklahoma on Saturday, and will wrap up with a showdown against No. 14 Texas Tech on Sunday.

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Luckily, the Wildcats will have their All-Time leader in games played, hits, and total bases while also having a College and Major League World Series to his name in the dugout in Chip.

Arizona fans will have yet another potential star in the making to root for in Golden Spikes Watch List nominee and Preseason All-American catcher, Daniel Susac. And on the bump, the Wildcats will look to righty TJ Nichols to get the season started against Kansas State on Friday, followed by lefty Garrett Irvin on Saturday, and righty Dawson Netz will wrap up the starting pitching assignments by taking the mound on Sunday.

Daniel Susac looks to Become Wildcats’ next First Round Draft pick

While he came to Tucson with a lot of hype as one of the best catching prospects in last year’s recruiting class, the rapid rise of Daniel Susac has been spectacular to watch as he turned himself into a unanimous Preseason All-American coming into the 2022 season.

Susac enters the 2022 season as the No. 23 ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline’s 2022 Draft Rankings, and if he continues to build on a spectacular 2021 season, he should put himself relatively comfortably in the 1st round of the MLB Draft. In addition to having a very promising draft ranking, he was also 1 of 55 players selected to the Golden Spikes Award Watch List.

Weekend Starting trio looks to send Arizona Baseball back to Omaha

The one thing that is always important to a long run in the postseason and potentially to Omaha for the College World Series is to have a top-flight pitching staff, and Arizona may very well just have that in 2022.

With a trio of TJ Nichols, Garrett Irvin, and Dawson Netz, each flashed signs of brilliance in 2021. Chip Hale will be relying heavily on them during the 2022 season, as the time has come for them to take the next steps on their quest to advance the rungs of the baseball ladder into the professional ranks.

Wildcats Home Opener Comes Tuesday

Not long after finishing things up in Arlington, the Wildcats will quickly have to turn their attention to Grand Canyon, as the Lopes come to Hi Corbett Field on Tuesday evening for just one game before the Milwaukee Panthers come to Tucson for a four-game set starting on Thursday.

The Wildcats will then have a 10-game homestand before heading out on the road to open Pac-12 play against Cal on March 11th. As Always, Bear Down, Arizona!