Arizona’s Season Ends With CWS Loss But Program’s Future Is Bright

OMAHA—Arizona came into this season with something to prove. Coach Jay Johnson said the Wildcats had an Omaha team in 2020, but the season was canceled before they got the chance to show it.

In 2021, Arizona left no doubt. The Wildcats crushed baseballs all season long, averaging 8.5 runs per game. They merged veterans with newcomers to build a pitching staff that strengthened over the course of the season. The result was a Pac-12 championship, their first since 2012, and the No. 5 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. They swept the Tucson Regional and then beat Mississippi in super regionals to return to the College World Series for the first time since 2016.

In Omaha, however, Arizona came up empty. It gave Vanderbilt all it could handle in the opener before falling, 7-6, in 12 innings. In Monday’s elimination game against Stanford, its season came to an end with a 14-5 loss. It was a tough ending for the Wildcats (45-18) after a strong, consistent season.

“You know, 24 hours or 36 hours of disappointment here is not going to change the accomplishments of our team,” Johnson said. “I’m very proud of them.”

An 0-2 trip to Omaha makes for a bitter end to the season, but Johnson is right to not let it define the 2021 Wildcats. Their trip to the CWS was their second in five seasons, something the program hadn’t accomplished since the 1980s. Their Pac-12 title was their first since 2012 and their first outright title since 1992. They won 45 games, earned a national seed and won a regional and super regional.

“I’m really proud of them,” Johnson said. “I mean, I really believed we could be here. I believed we could be a championship team, and we were. And, again, it’s one thing to think you have that, talk about doing it, say you’re going to do it and actually go out and do it.”

Arizona’s success this season started with the offense. As a team, the Wildcats hit .325/.422/.508—a remarkable line considering half their games came against Pac-12 pitching. Seven of their regulars hit better than .300 on the season, led by first baseman Brandon Boissiere (.369/.451/.506). DH Jacob Berry (.352/.439/.676, 17 HR) and catcher Daniel Susac (.335/.392/.591, 12 HR) earned All-American honors as true freshmen.

The Wildcats lineup was deep and unrelenting, and it powered them through much of the season. But the rest of the team grew around the lineup. The pitching staff developed throughout the season as they built a reliable rotation and a bullpen that presented many options.

Arizona got off to something of an inauspicious start. It opened the season splitting four games against Ball State and lost a series to UCLA to begin the Pac-12 season. But it didn’t take long for the Wildcats to make the necessary adjustments and soon they were rolling toward the Pac-12 title, finishing one game better than second-place Oregon.

“Made some adjustments and really got better as the year went on,” Johnson said. “I mean to only lose I think two series the entire year in the conference that we play in and the schedule that we play is a great accomplishment. But I thought we got better as we went.”

Arizona’s rise this spring came after a few tough years for the program. After reaching the CWS in 2016 and falling just short of the national title—it lost a pair of one-run games to Coastal Carolina in the finals—it made the NCAA Tournament the following year, going 1-2 in the Lubbock Regional. The Wildcats then missed the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years, ending up on the wrong side of the bubble both times. The Wildcats seemed to be on track for a strong season in 2020—they were off to a 10-5 start—but the season was canceled before they were able to prove themselves against Pac-12 competition.

But through it all, Arizona had been building. Johnson is a premium recruiter and that has been apparent throughout his tenure in Tucson. The Wildcats have landed a Top 25 recruiting class every year of his tenure after ranking just four times in the previous 15 years.

With each recruiting class, the depth and talent of Arizona’s roster improved. Catcher Austin Wells last year was drafted 28th overall by the Yankees, becoming just the second first-round pick from Arizona in a decade. This year, true freshmen Jacob Berry and Daniel Susac both earned All-America honors and first baseman Brandon Boissiere, outfielder Ryan Holgate and righthander Chase Silseth all rank as top-150 draft prospects.

Arizona’s recruiting has already paid off in on-field results and will continue to do so. In Berry and Susac, the Wildcats have a pair of stars already who will return to anchor the lineup in 2022. Fellow true freshman Chase Davis, who was Arizona’s highest-ranked recruit last year, is waiting in the wings to step in to replace Holgate in the outfield. Young, powerful righthanders Chandler Murphy, Dawson Netz and TJ Nichols stepped into important roles this season and will soon lead the pitching staff.

Beyond that core group of young players, Arizona could return several more regulars in 2022, depending on how the draft goes.  

The heights Arizona reached this season aren’t likely to be a peak or a once-every-five-years occurrence. The program under Johnson has reached a level where trips to Omaha should be more routine. For the Wildcats, 2021 is just a starting point.