Wildcats Face Cardinal in Pac-12 Tournament Semifinal

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The No. 1 seed Arizona Wildcats (34-21) and No. 8 seed Stanford Cardinal (22-32) meet in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinal round on Friday night.

Friday night's rematch from the 2023 semifinal round will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks and broadcast live on Wildcats Radio 1290 AM. The winner secures a spot in Saturday night's championship game on ESPNU.

Arizona and Stanford have faced off four times this year, with the Wildcats holding a 4-0 edge in the season series. The Cats won a midweek non-conference road matchup at the Cardinal in April and swept the three-game conference series in Tucson earlier this month.

Shortstop Mason White has homered in both of Arizona's games in Scottsdale this week, and has three career home runs in the Pac-12 Tournament.

The Wildcats, the Pac-12 regular season champions, look to advance to the finals and add another resume item before selection Monday.

For more, a complete game preview is below.
 

Leading Off...

• The No. 1 seed Arizona Wildcats square off against the No. 8 seed Stanford Cardinal in the semifinal round of the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament on Friday night.
• Friday night's game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks with Roxy Bernstein (PxP) and Wes Clements (Analyst) on the call. It will also be broadcast live on Wildcats Radio 1290 AM with play-by-play from Brian Jeffries.
• Arizona and Stanford are the only two teams in the conference to have advanced to the semifinal round in all three years of the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament.
• Shortstop Mason White hit his 19th home run of the season on Thursday, moving him into solo possession of eighth all-time on the Arizona single-season leaderboard. He is one HR shy of breaking into the single-season top five.
• Arizona secured the No. 1 seed in the tournament after clinching the Pac-12 regular season championship on Saturday in Tucson with a 4-3 win over Oregon State. It was the sixth Pac-12 championship for Arizona and their first since 2021.
• Head coach Chip Hale was selected as the 2024 Pac-12 Coach of the Year on Tuesday morning. He is the first person in Pac-12 baseball history to win both Player of the Year (1987) and Coach of the Year.
• RHP Clark Candiotti, OF Brendan Summerhill, RHP Cam Walty, INF Mason White, LHP Jackson Kent, and INF Garen Caulfield all picked up Pac-12 All-Conference honors. OF Emilio Corona and RHP Casey Hintz both earned Pac-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention nods.

PAC-12 AWARDS: The Arizona Wildcats picked up their most All-Conference honorees in over a decade and head coach Chip Hale has been selected as the 2024 Pac-12 Coach of the Year, the conference announced on Tuesday morning. Coach Hale becomes the first person in Pac-12 baseball history, and just the second person in conference history regardless of sport or gender, to win both Pac-10/12 Player of the Year (1987) and Pac-12 Coach of the Year. He joins elite company along with current Oregon State Gymnastics head coach, Tanya Chaplin, who won multiple of each award. In addition to Hale's major award win, Clark Candioitti, Brendan Summerhill, Cam Walty, Mason White, Jackson Kent, and Garen Caulfield all picked up Pac-12 All-Conference honors. Six All-Conference selections ties a program record and is the most for Arizona Baseball since the 2012 National Championship team also tallied six. Arizona also picked up a pair of Pac-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention selections in Emilio Corona and Casey Hintz. Hale took a team picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll all the way to a regular season championship, the sixth in program history. He is the first Wildcat skipper to earn the award since 2021, and the fourth to win the award all-time. Hale's former head coach during his time as a Wildcat student-athlete, Jerry Kindall, rattled off three Pac-10 South Coach of the Year awards in 1980, 1989, and 1992. From March 24–April 26, under Hale's direction, the Wildcats won 11 consecutive Pac-12 Conference games, the program's longest single-season conference win streak since they joined the Pac-10 for the 1979 baseball season. The 2024 Arizona Wildcats piled up 30+ wins for the ninth consecutive full season, and the 35th time across 45 seasons in the Pac-10/12, while also tallying 20+ conference wins for just the third time since 1990. All eight of the Wildcats All-Conference honorees are first-time recipients of the award. This year also marks the most Arizona pitchers to earn First Team All-Conference honors since 2008 and what is believed to be the first time all three of the Wildcats primary starting pitchers landed on the list.

Pac-12 Coach of the Year

• Chip Hale

Pac-12 All-Conference

• SP Clark Candiotti
• OF Brendan Summerhill
• SP Cam Walty
• INF Mason White
• SP Jackson Kent
• INF Garen Caulfield

Pac-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention

• OF Emilio Corona
• RP Casey Hintz