Among players who have appeared in at least 25 games this season, Tommy Splaine’s .237 batting average is at the bottom of the list for Arizona. It’s also by far the lowest of his three years at Arizona, having hit .271 as a freshman and .287 last season.

But where the junior first baseman lacks in raw numbers he more than makes up for in big plays.

It was Splaine’s single in the bottom of the 9^th inning that scored Emilio Corona to give Arizona the Pac-12 Tournament title over USC on Thursday night, part of a 2-hit game that also featured a single to open the 8^th when the Wildcats scored twice to tie it.

Splaine had five hits in the four Pac-12 Tournament games, tied for second most on the team. And his previous late-game dramatics were key to Arizona winning the conference’s regular season title and pulling off several of its astounding eight walkoff wins.

“It’s funny because Tommy can have some at-bats where there are strikeouts and he’s not doing much,” UA coach Chip Hale said afterward. “But it seems like when the the game’s on the line he has his best at-bats.”

That statement describes Splaine’s season—and that game—to a T. He was 2 for 4 against USC, striking out the first two times as the Wildcats were being no-hit, yet during the late innings he came through.

Splaine has struck out 56 times this season, three more than in his previous two years, while walking just seven times. His swing has been in constant adjustment, starting from the fall when hitting coach Toby DeMello started working with him to try and draw more power from his 6-foot-5 frame.

“Starting in the fall, I started working with some different stuff,” Splaine said. “As the season has gone on obviously, it didn’t go as I wanted it to but my coaches and I have been just working hard just to keep improving and just sticking with it really.”

Overall, the season has been a disappointment for Splaine, who after spending 2023 sharing catcher duties with Cameron LaLiberte was moved to 1B. He’s been stellar there, with a .988 fielding percentage and just five errors in over 400 chances, but because of the hitting struggles he hasn’t started every game; true freshman Andrew Cain got some starts at 1^st with Splaine coming in late as a defensive replacement, but there hasn’t been any complaining from the vet.

“If he was a professional I’d say he’s a consummate professional because he has not let any of his struggles at the plate affect him on defense,” Hale said. “That’s why he’s out there. He holds down that infield, and I’m just so happy that it was him that got the winning hit.”

Splaine’s five home runs are a career high, but he last hit one out April 24 at New Mexico State. Since then he’s had nine hits, all singles, but he’s found other ways to contribute down the stretch as he’s been part of the last three walkoffs.

Against Washington State he led off the 11^th inning by getting hit by a pitch and ended up scoring the winning run in that 7-6 victory, part of a run of a school-record 11 consecutive Pac-12 victories. Then, in the regular-season finale Splaine was first to the plate in the 9^th after Oregon State took a 3-2 lead in the top of the inning.

What did he do? Like he has more than anyone else on the Wildcats (12), Splaine was hit by a pitch. That’s happened 29 times in his career, 10th-most in school history.

A one-out walk to Maddox Mihalakis put Splaine in scoring position, and he crossed the plate as the tying run just ahead of Mihalakis on Brendan Summerhill’s walkoff 2-run double to win the conference title.

“I just really wanted to pull through for this team,” Splaine said. “We all love each other.”