Arizona, hosting an NCAA Tournament regional, got to practice like normal this week and sleep in its own beds every night. Grand Canyon, located just outside Phoenix, drove to Tucson on Thursday morning, hopped off the bus and walked right to Hi Corbett Field for practice.
It was a different story for two other Tucson-area teams, Dallas Baptist University and West Virginia University, both of which suffered travel delays, mostly due to weather, forcing them to alter their original practice schedules.
“It's not smooth sailing and it never will be,” West Virginia coach Randy Mazey joked.
DBU departed on two separate planes Thursday, arriving in town about 30 minutes before the rescheduled practice time, but after that practice concluded, coach Dan Heefner put things into perspective.
“Right now, I think it's better to be able to continue playing even with the travel issues,” he said. “There are a lot of people who want me to have that issue.”
DBU, which plays West Virginia in the regional opener on Friday at 12 pm PST, has the least experience playing for High Corbett, with infielder Ethan Mann, a 2021 recruit from New Mexico State, being the only member of the Patriots to have played in a game here.
“When I first found out I was coming to Tucson, I told the guys there was a big gap,” said Mann, who was 1-for-7 with 1 RBI in two games for High Corbett.
West Virginia played Arizona three times in February 2023, winning two of those games, while GCU has been there twice this season and seven times in the past four years, but Antelopes coach Greg Wallis believes his team will have a bigger advantage being closer to home than being used to the size of the field.
“Just getting on the bus this morning and coming out here and having my family here is probably the best thing for us,” he said. “Tonight we're having a family barbecue at (first baseman) Zach York's house for the team and his parents, so I think that's the best thing about staying local.”
Maisie's Last Dance
Mazey, who coached West Virginia for 12 seasons, announced his final coaching appointment with the Mountaineers a year ago, and while he acknowledged doing so would be “telling everybody that I don't want to coach anymore,” he doesn't regret the decision.
Last year, he led the Mountaineers to a Big 12 Conference regular-season title, and 2024 will be the program's first year since the 1960s to play in consecutive regional tournaments.
“I made the decision a year ago, and I don't know how I'm going to feel a year after making that decision,” he said. “I told my players the other day a year ago that I didn't want to coach anymore, and I sit here today and I want to coach my players, absolutely, aggressively, for as long as I'm allowed to.”
Not a typical celebrity
To college baseball fans outside of Arizona, and especially to many in the state after Arizona State's loss to Arizona State, Grand Canyon will seem like a school that's only a contender to make the NCAA Tournament due to each conference qualifying for at least one, but this is the third postseason appearance in the past four years for the “Lopez.”
Dallas Baptist University is an even more extreme example of baseball success despite not having much brand recognition, in part because baseball is the only sport the Patriots play at the Division I level, and since moving up in 2004, they have appeared in 13 regional tournaments and two super regionals.
“Coach Heef always says that the baseball program at DBU is like a football program,” infielder Miguel Santos said, “The football programs at other schools are usually the ones that have the most funding and get the most attention, so we have to be held to a higher standard because people look at us differently.”
West Virginia's Maxey, who played against DBU frequently while an assistant coach at TCU, said no one should overlook the Patriots and GCU.
“Dallas Baptist Church is the Grand Canyon of Texas,” he said.
Regional Star Power
Baseball America released its updated list of the top 500 college prospects for the 2024 MLB Draft, with eight of them playing in Tucson.
Topping the list is West Virginia shortstop JJ Weatherholt, who is ranked No. 4 overall and is a surefire first-round pick. He caught Arizona State's attention last season when the Mountaineers played High Corbett and recorded 7 hits in 13 at-bats, 3 doubles, 2 home runs, 4 RBI and 5 stolen bases (including a win-clinching 11th-inning steal of home in the series opener).
He is one of five Mountaineers players ranked in the top 500, along with right-handers Aidan Major (88th) and David Hageman (175th), first baseman Grant Hussey (372nd) and left-hander Derek Clark (500th). Clark will start in the season opener between West Virginia and Dallas Baptist University, which will start right-hander Dallas Johnson, the No. 48 overall prospect who struck out 14 batters in 6.2 innings against Arizona in the Frisco Classic in March.
Grand Canyon's lone representative is right-hander Daniel Abitia (246), while left-hander Jackson Kent (191) is the only current Wildcat on the list. Two members of the 2024 signing class, left-hander Mason Russell (92) and right-hander Smith Bailey (286), are ranked, along with former UA pitchers Aiden May (Oregon State, 112) and Josh Randall (San Diego, 218).
