Raise your hand if you expected an Oregon-Arizona final in the Pac-12 baseball tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz.
There would most likely be very few hands raised because these two teams weren’t exactly hitting on all cylinders coming into this tourney. Oregon was a 6-seed and Arizona was an 8-seed for a reason.
The Ducks were losers of five of their last seven, including being swept at home by Washington, the team they just defeated 12-7 in the semifinals. If Oregon hadn’t won its last two games over last-place Utah, this might be a very different article.
As for the Wildcats, they entered the Pac-12 tournament with a losing conference record of 12-18. But with the way they have pounded the baseball over the course of this week, that record probably should be flipped to 18-12.
Arizona had a tough month of April with the month ending with a sweep to the Beavers in Corvallis. But once the calendar flipped over and the weather became warmer, the Wildcats’ bats heated up at well. That 21-20 win at Stanford should have been an indication of what the Wildcats had in store for the tournament.
They’ve scored in double figures in each of the Wildcats’ three games, including the 14-4 win over the Cardinal in the semifinals.
Oregon and Arizona are not strangers to one another. The Ducks went down to Tucson in early April and swept away the Wildcats. Jacob Walsh earned Pac-12 Player of the Week after that series.
But these two teams are very different now than they were almost two months ago. Here are a few things to look out for in tonight’s title game.