Arizona State opens Pac-12 baseball tournament Tuesday against rival Arizona
The Arizona State baseball team furthered its cause for a berth in the NCAA postseason by taking two of three games against UCLA to end the regular season. Now the Sun Devils have another chance to state their case in the Pac-12 tournament.
ASU (31-22, 16-13 Pac-12) begins conference tournament pool play at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Scottsdale Stadium, facing rival Arizona (30-22, 12-17).
The Sun Devils have made significant progress in their second year under coach Willie Bloomquist. ASU went 26-32 overall and 13-17 in conference play in 2022, placing eighth. This year the Sun Devils ended up the regular season in fifth, but had been in first until losing two of three at Oregon April 28-30. That started a stretch in which the Sun Devils lost eight of nine games, so the UCLA series proved pivotal in regaining some momentum.
The tough end of the season was not particularly unexpected, though, because ASU's schedule was backloaded with most of the perennial title challengers, including Stanford.
The Sun Devils and Wildcats played four times this season with ASU prevailing in three of the four. The wins came by scores of 6-5, 7-4 and 10-6 in a series played in Phoenix in late March.
Arizona's win came on April 19 in Tucson 20-0 in a game not scheduled as a "conference" game. Arizona, coached by Chip Hale, has played better of late, winning six of its last nine games. That included taking two of three from a USC team that swept the Sun Devils.
This year's Pac-12 tournament features a format change, with the field expanded from eight to nine teams and moves from double elimination to pool play first.
The three pool winners, along with one wild card team, will advance to the Friday single-elimination semifinals. The wild card will be determined by the best record of the non-advancing teams. Any tiebreaker will be awarded to the highest-seeded team.
The semifinals will pit the highest-seeded team against the lowest-seeded team on one side, with the second-highest seed and second-lowest seed on the other. Teams from the same pool, however, will not play each other in the semifinals.
Joining ASU and Arizona in Pool B is No. 2 seed Oregon State (39-16, 18-12). ASU will play Oregon State at 10 a.m. on Thursday. ASU took two of three from the Beavers in April, dropping the opener 13-11 but winning the next two 11-7 and 12-10.
Arizona will play Oregon State at 10 a.m. Wednesday. The Wildcats lost all three meetings against the Beavers in Corvallis: 2-1, 10-4 and 11-10.
Pool A includes California (24-26, 12-18), Oregon (33-20, 16-14) and Stanford (37-14, 23-7) while Pool C consists of Washington (33-16, 17-12), USC (33-22-1, 17-13) and UCLA (27-23-1, 12-16-1).
Stanford is the top seed. It won the inaugural Pac-12 baseball tournament in 2022 as the No. 1 seed, defeating No. 2 seed Oregon State 9-5 in the championship game. The Cardinal outscored their opponents 35-20 in their four games.
Here is the schedule:
Tuesday, May 23
Game 1 (Pool B) - #8 Arizona vs. #5 Arizona State, 10 a.m. PT
Game 2 (Pool C) - #4 USC vs. #7 UCLA, 2:30 p.m. PT
Game 3 (Pool A) - #9 California vs. #6 Oregon, 7 p.m. PT
Wednesday, May 24
Game 4 (Pool B) - #2 Oregon State vs. #8 Arizona, 10 a.m. PT
Game 5 (Pool C) - #3 Washington vs. #7 UCLA, 2:30 p.m. PT
Game 6 (Pool A) - #1 Stanford vs. #9 California, 7 p.m. PT
Thursday, May 25
Game 7 (Pool B) - #5 Arizona State vs. #2 Oregon State, 10 a.m. PT
Game 8 (Pool C) - #4 USC vs. #3 Washington, 2:30 p.m. PT
Game 9 (Pool A) - #6 Oregon vs. #1 Stanford, 7 p.m. PT
Friday, May 26 - Semifinals
Game 10 - TBD, 2:30 p.m. PT
Game 11 - TBD, 7 p.m. PT
Saturday, May 27 - Championship
Game 12 - Game #10 Winner vs Game #11 Winner, 7 p.m. PT
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State baseball to face Arizona in Pac-12 tournament opener
