Arizona Returns to Pac-12 Tournament Finals to Face USC

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For the second consecutive season, the Arizona Wildcats (35-21) have advanced to the Pac-12 Tournament Finals. Arizona will face off against the USC Trojans (31-27) on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. in a battle to claim the Pac-12 Tournament championship and the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Saturday's game will be televised on ESPN2 and broadcast live on Wildcats Radio 1290 AM. Tickets for the game at Scottsdale Stadium are available for purchase here.

The Wildcats advanced to the finals with a 6-5 win over No. 9 seed Washington in pool play and a 6-3 win over No. 8 seed Stanford in the semifinals.

Under the guidance of head coach Chip Hale, the Wildcats have posted a record of 7-4 at the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament.

More information on Saturday's finals matchup can be found below.
 

Leading Off...

• The No. 1 seed Arizona Wildcats and No. 4 seed USC Trojans face off in the Pac-12 Tournament Finals on Saturday night in a winner-take-all fight for the tournament title.
• Saturday night's game will be televised on ESPN2 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 is playing in their second straight Pac-12 Tournament Finals, while USC makes their first appearance in the championship game. The Wildcats dropped the title game to Oregon, 5-4, last season.
• 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