Arizona
Pac-12 Baseball Tournament: Arizona trying to stay grounded after emotional regular season finish
Saturday night was the highest of highs for Arizona, winning the final Pac-12 regular season title in dramatic fashion with a walkoff at Hi Corbett Field. But Monday brought a return to reality, as the Wildcats put forth a less than enthusiastic practice in preparation for the conference tournament.
“I’ll give you a pass today, but tomorrow let’s have a good one,” Chip Hale said he told the team afterward. “Be ready for Wednesday. Washington’s gonna bring everything they have at us.”
Arizona (33-20) opens the Pac-12 Tournament at 7 p.m. PT Wednesday against the ninth-seeded Huskies (19-29-1) in the first of two pool play games at Scottsdale Stadium. The Wildcats also face No. 6 Cal (34-18) on Thursday night, and as the No. 1 seed only need to win once to earn a spot in Friday’s semifinals.
“Our attitude going in is we want to win every game,” Hale said. “We want to win every inning, you want to win every out, so we’re going to do the best we can to win it. There will be some times during Wednesday’s game where they need to get their feet back on the ground. It may not start great, I know that.”
With that in mind, though, the UA won’t throw any of its three weekend starters in the opener, going with left-hander Bradon Zastrow in what will be a bullpen game akin to the May 7 win at ASU. That would line up lefty Jackson Kent to face Cal, then have righty Clark Candiotti for the semis and righty Cam Walty for Saturday’s Pac-12 title game.
“We didn’t want to push Kent up a day again,” Hale said. “This way he gets seven days, and then for the regional (all three starters) will get even one more day.”
Kent has allowed five runs in three consecutive starts after having a 2.41 ERA through his first 11 outings. Hale said the redshirt sophomore’s arm is fine, it was just a matter of leaving his changeup up in the zone against a potent Oregon State offense, which knocked him out after three innings last Thursday.
Regardless of what happens in Scottsdale this week, Arizona will be in next week’s NCAA Tournament. That wasn’t the case a year ago when the Wildcats had to get to the Pac-12 final to sneak into the NCAA field, beating ASU and Oregon State to win its pool and then run-ruling top seed Stanford before falling to Oregon in the title game.
The different scenarios shouldn’t create different approaches to the tourney, infielder Garen Caulfield said.
“I think it’s just continuing to play the game one pitch at a time and treating every game like we have nothing to lose and playing with house money,” said Caulfield, one of eight Wildcats to earn all-conference honors.
Some added motivation could come from starting with a Washington team that took two of three from Arizona late last month in Seattle. The Wildcats won the first game 3-2, dropped the middle 4-3 and led 8-3 in the 8th before blowing the lead and falling in 13 innings.
“I think the guys felt like we should have won two out of three,” Hale said. “I think that adds a little juice to it.”
Hale defers Coach of the Year praise
Asked about winning Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Hale was quick to credit everyone around him for what he called a “staff award.” The players say otherwise.
“I think he’s played a role in every step of success we’ve had,” Caulfield said. “He’s kept our heads straight. We weren’t picked to finish very high, as you guys know, and we used that as a chip on our shoulder and Chip just continued to put together good plans for every practice and all the games and everything. So it’s very exciting to see him win.”
Added Candiotti: “Just keeping everyone together and making sure that everyone’s on the same page and no one’s getting left behind, so to speak. Making sure everyone’s right at the top, right at that level and just always moving forward. Never getting stuck on events in the past.”
The first person in conference history to win both Player and Coach of the Year awards in baseball, Hale said his ability to be patient with a young team was his biggest goal for the season.
“The one thing about coming from the pro side to the college side is … if you’re out of the game, you don’t have a good start to it, you have 144 in the minor leagues and have 162 in the big leagues, so be it,” he said. “But every game is a World Series in college. It’s so super important to win every game. And so to be patient through a 9-inning game, understand that there’s going toand flows, which I do. So just be patient. And if they need a little jab, or a little kick in the butt, know when to do that. I think that’s been probably my biggest goal this year.”
Injury update
Arizona’s outfield situation became so injury depleted last weekend against Oregon State that reliever Casey Hintz, recruited as a two-way player, was forced into starting the last two games in center. But heading into the Pac-12 tourney, reinforcements may be on the way.
Hale said freshman Easton Breyfogle, who has out since pulling a hamstring at Washington on April 27, is “close” to returning and could be in the lineup Wednesday night. Senior Emilio Corona and redshirt freshman TJ Adams are both expected to be on the tourney roster, which at 30 is three more than for Pac-12 games, but neither are likely to be able to hit.
Corona, who was hit on the right hand with a pitch on Thursday, can’t grip a bat yet but could pinch run—he was in consideration for that Saturday night in the 9th inning—and possibly play defense. Adams, who injured his right shoulder crashing into the wall at Utah on May 10, has yet to resume baseball activities but could run the bases if needed.
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Amazon has paused all drone deliveries in Arizona.
Currently, Amazon’s Tolleson, Arizona, facility and College Station, Texas, facility are the only ones in the country that offer Air Prime.
Air Prime uses autonomous drones to deliver packages weighing up to 5lbs to customers in 30 minutes or less.
Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson says that part of the reason why the company decided to pause drone deliveries was an accident at its test site in Pendleton, Oregon, in December.
“Safety underscores everything we do in Prime Air, and our MK30 drone is safe and compliant. It’s designed to safely respond to unknown events in a known way, and the overall architecture of the drone has performed as expected,” he said. “We’re currently in the process of making software changes to the drone and will be voluntarily pausing our commercial operations on Friday, Jan. 17. Our services will resume once these updates are completed and approved by the FAA.”
Stephenson emphasized that the employees at the Tolleson and College Station facilities will remain working and get paid through the pause in service.
He said that although the incident in Oregon was part of the reason for the pause, it was not the main cause.
“The incident that occurred at our Pendleton, Oregon, facility in Dec. 2024 is not the primary reason for our voluntary operational pause. Prime Air continued to deliver to customers safely and within federal compliance until we voluntarily paused the service on Jan. 17,” Stephenson said.
Mike Fraietta, an FAA-certified drone pilot for Gargoyle Systems, said while this appears to be a step back in drone deliveries, he is optimistic about its future.
“Fortunately, it happened in the lab before it happened in public,” said Fraietta. “With any kind of technology, we’re going to have these hiccups. It’s still in its early stages. These challenges highlight that we need to ensure improvement, ensure safety and reliability.”
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PHOENIX — Rep. Andy Biggs filed a statement of interest on Tuesday to run for Arizona governor in 2026, the first Republican politician in office to do so for the next election cycle.
Biggs, who represents the 5th Congressional District spanning most of the East Valley, said in a statement that he’d rely on his previous political experience if he did decide to run for governor.
“Arizona has a bright future but will need strong leadership to reach its full potential,” Biggs said. “I have been honored to serve Arizona at the state and federal levels and will bring my experience home to my native state to help it fulfill its tremendous capacity.”
What would gubernatorial race look like with Andy Biggs?
A statement of interest filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office doesn’t mean a candidate will officially run for a position, but it does signal Biggs’ captivation with being the Republican nominee for governor.
The list of interested politicians will grow as the 2026 primary election moves closer, but it won’t be the only hurdle for Biggs.
President Donald Trump has already endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson for governor in 2026. Taylor Robson lost to Kari Lake in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary.
“Are you running for governor? I think so, Karrin. Because if you do, you’re going to have my support,” Trump said after pointing to Robson in the crowd during Turning Point’s AmericaFest event at the Phoenix Convention Center in December.
If Biggs won the primary, he’d likely face off against Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in the general election.
Scott Neely, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2022 and Mesa mayor in 2024, is one of five other politicians to file a statement of interest for governor in 2026.
“I have a firm understanding of what the state needs to thrive,” Biggs said. “I look forward to conversing with my fellow Arizonans as I consider this weighty decision.”
It’s a rather quick turnaround for the West Virginia Mountaineers, who are coming off yet another massive win, this time over second-ranked Iowa State.
Tonight, Darian DeVries and Co. will welcome the Arizona State Sun Devils to the WVU Coliseum for the first time in what will be the first-ever matchup between the two programs.
According to the ESPN Basketball Power Index (BPI) matchup predictor, West Virginia has a 75.2% chance to improve to 14-4, while Arizona State has a 24.8% chance to pick up their second win in league play.
Given Arizona State’s struggles throughout the first half of the season, this number feels like it’s in the right spot. They have the talent to win some games in the Big 12 and aren’t likely to finish in the bottom three or four, so that’s why it’s hard to justify going much higher than the 75%. Plus, can WVU control its emotions and put the Iowa State win to bed?
For the Mountaineers to remain in the Big 12 title picture, they really needed to go 1-1 at worst last week against a pair of top-10 teams, and they did exactly that. They fought as long as they could on the road at Houston but just wore out at the end of the second half. DeVries’ squad was able to bounce back and protect its home floor on Saturday, knocking off No. 2 Iowa State on the day they honored the legendary Jerry West.
The Sun Devils lost both of their games last week against UCF and Cincinnati by six and seven points, respectively. In their loss to UCF, ASU shot the ball extremely well, going 52% from the floor and 50% (12/24) from three-point range. They accomplished just about everything they wanted to do offensively. The problem is that UCF did as well. The loss to Cincinnati was more of an old-school slugfest where they found themselves trailing by 14 at the half. They outscored the Bearcats in the second half, but it was too little, too late.
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