After spending the last eight seasons in Tucson, Arizona Baseball pitching coach Dave Lawn announced he will depart from the team.
After their season was unfortunately cut short after two games at the Lafayette Regional in Arkansas, Arizona Baseball now faces a long and daunting off-season.
And after completing year two of the Chip Hale era, the 2023 baseball season saw its fair share of ups and downs.
From the highest of highs like winning three-straight games in the Pac-12 Conference Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid, to the lowest of lows which saw two, four-game losing streaks and an 8th-place finish in the conference.
After their loss to Santa Clara that eliminated the Wildcats from Tournament play, coach Hale hinted that changes would soon be coming, and it appears he stayed true to his word as Coach Lawn announced his departure.
8 great years! 5 regionals, 2 Supers, 2 CWS, 1 P12 Championship…thanks to Greg Byrne/Jay Johnson for bringing me here and Dave Heeke/Chip Hale for keeping me here…thanks to all the staff/players for their support and effort. #BearDown CL
— Dave Lawn (@CoachDaveLawn) June 5, 2023
Dave Lawn leaves Arizona Baseball after spending eight seasons with the Wildcats.
For those that remember, Lawn was first hired by Arizona and then head coach Jay Johnson in 2015 as he made the transition from Nevada.
And for five seasons, Dave served as pitching coach before being reassigned to defensive coordinator for 2020-21.
When Johnson left for LSU in 2021, Hale decided to keep Lawn on staff where he then served as pitching coach again in 2022-23.
And ever since then, Arizona’s pitching has had its fair share of struggles as the team posted a 5.04 team ERA in 2022, and a 5.97 ERA this past season. So it seemed like changes needed to be made.
Either way, it should be interesting to see who Hale brings in and how quickly he is able to turn around this group!
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