ARLINGTON, Texas — The No. 4 seed Arizona Wildcats (36-18, 18-12) open play at the Big 12 Baseball Championship with a quarterfinal matchup against the No. 12 seed BYU Cougars (28-26, 11-20) on Thursday morning.

First pitch on ESPN+ from Globe Life Field is scheduled for 7:00 a.m. MST. The game will also be broadcast live on Wildcats Radio 1290 AM with play-by-play from Brian Jeffries.

Arizona earned a first round bye with their fourth-place finish during the regular season. The Wildcats closed out the Big 12 slate with a road series victory over Houston last weekend.

The Big 12 Championship is a single-elimination tournament in 2025, with the winner of Thursday’s game advancing to the semifinals.

For more, a complete game preview is below.
 

Leading Off…

• The 4-seed Arizona Wildcats begin their postseason  run with a quarterfinal matchup against the 12-seed BYU Cougars at the Big 12 Baseball Championship.
• Thursday’s game will be televised on ESNP+ with Keith Moreland (PxP) and Greg Swindell (Analyst) on the call. It will also be broadcast live on Wildcats Radio 1290 AM with play-by-play from Brian Jeffries.
• The Wildcats and Cougars have faced off 34 times previously, with games dating back to 1963 and Arizona holding a 24-10 edge in the all-time series.
• Most recently, Arizona took 2-of-3 games played in Provo last month. The Wildcats dropped the first game, 5-12, before rebounding with wins in game two (5-4) and game three (7-5) to secure the series.
• Reliever Tony Pluta was selected as the Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year on Tuesday, making him the first Arizona Baseball player in program history to earn conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. The junior boasts a 3.919 GPA as an aerospace engineering major.
• Shortstop Mason White currently ranks third in program history with 42 career home runs. He sits just one home run shy of a tie for second. Of his 42 career home runs, 29 have been hit away from Hi Corbett Field at road/neutral venues.
• Reliever Tony Pluta currently leads the Big 12 and ranked tied for ninth nationally with 11 saves. His 11 saves are tied for the second most in a single season in program history and are two shy of Jason Stoffel’s record 13 saves in 2008.

BIG 12 AWARDS: Seven Wildcats picked up recognition on Tuesday with the announcement of the Big 12 Conference’s end of year baseball awards, highlighted by right-handed pitcher Tony Pluta who was selected as the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Pluta, the first conference Scholar-Athlete of the year in program history, was also named to the All-Big 12 Second Team along with infielder Mason White. Additionally, first year right-handed pitcher Smith Bailey was voted onto the Big 12 All-Freshman Team. Arizona’s recognitions were rounded out by catcher Adonys Guzman, right-handed pitcher Owen Kramkowski, and outfielders Brendan Summerhill and Aaron Walton all earning All-Big 12 Honorable Mention nods. Across 23 regular season appearances Pluta tallied 11 saves, the most in the Big 12 and tied for ninth among all Division I players. The Iliinois native owns an impressive 1.65 ERA and has limited opposing hitters to a minuscule .187 batting average while striking out 26. Pluta’s numbers are even more impressive in Big 12 Conference play, where he made 10 appearances and allowed just one earned run for a 0.61 ERA while registering five of his 11 saves. The right-hander is currently tied for the second most saves in a single season in program history, while his 13 career saves are tied for the seventh most all-time. Pluta’s dominance was not limited to the baseball diamond, the Aerospace Engineering major boasts a 3.919 GPA and was selected to represent Arizona on the CSC Academic All-District team and the Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll last season.

POSTSEASON POINTS:

• The Wildcats are participating in their fourth straight confrence tournament this week. Arizona also qualifed for each of the three Pac-12 Tournaments that were played from 2022-24.
• Arizona holds an 8-4 record in conference tournaments under head coach Chip Hale.
• The Wildcats opened their season at Globe Life Field in Arlington, going 0-3 against Ole Miss (1-2), No. 15 Clemson (5-16), and Louisville (1-13).

STREAKONOMICS: Outfielder Easton Broyfogle owns the longest active hit streak for the Wildcats, entering this week’s action in Arlington with a five-game streak. During that stretch Breyfogle is hitting .471 (8-for-17) with four runs scored, two triples, two home runs, and eight RBI. The next-longest hit streaks belong to catcher Adonys Guzman and infielder Andrew Cain, both of which carry four-game streaks into Globe Life Field. Breyfogle also boasts the longest active on-base streak on the team, at seven games.

TUCSON’S OWN: Infielder and Tucson native Mason White has slugged his way into the Arizona Baseball record books. With 10 home runs as a true freshman, a team-leading 19 last year as a sophomore, and 13 more so far this year, White is now third in program history with 42 dingers. He has also piled up 101 career extra-base hits, tied for the third most in program history with his current head coach, Chip Hale.

ALWAYS BE CATCHING: Arizona catcher Adonys Guzman was selected as one of 13 semifinalists for the Buster Posey Award, the Wichita Sports Commission announced this week. The award has been presented annually since 2000 to the nation’s most outstanding catcher; it was previously known as the Johnny Bench Award until renaming it after the famous Florida State and San Francisco Giants catcher, Buster Posey, in 2019. Through 51 games, Guzman has posted a .309 batting average (58-for-188) with 37 runs scored, 10 doubles, six home runs, and 34 RBI, all of which are career-high marks. In addition to his contributions at the plate, Guzman has started 45 games behind the plate and posted an impressive 4.88 catcher’s ERA. The junior backstop has thrown out 16 would-be base stealers and registered a .985 fielding percentage on a team-high 461 total chances. Guzman’s 16 baserunners caught stealing are tied for the eighth most in a single season by a Wildcat during the StatCrew era (1998-current).

VITAMIN K: During a 16-inning marathon win against West Virginia on Friday, March 21 the Wildcats pitching staff tallied a program-record 29 strikeouts. The impressive mark shattered the previous program high of 21, set on April 26, 1940. The previous high-water mark of 21, accomplished 85 years ago, was solely the work of one man: Ken Heist. He struck out 21 New Mexico Lobos in a game played at Hi Corbett Field, then named Randolph Park, decades before it became the permanent home of the Wildcats. Arizona’s program record 29 strikeout performance fell just two strikeouts shy of tying the NCAA record of 31.

SAVING PRIVATE PLUTA: Reliever Tony Pluta has been a rock-solid force out of the Arizona bullpen this season and has quickly risen up the program’s single-season and career saves leaderboards. With 11 saves this year and 13 for his career, Pluta finds himself ranked tied for second on the Wildcats single-season charts and tied for seventh on the Arizona career leaderboard. Pluta leads the Big 12 and ranks tied for ninth nationally with 11 saves this year.

3,000 CLUB: Arizona Baseball is one of just 10 programs in the history of college baseball to win 3,000 games. As it currently stands, Arizona is the 10th all-time winningest program in the history of the sport. The Wildcats logged their 3,000th victory with a 3-2 win over UCLA on March 29, 2024. Across time as a player (1984-87) and as a coach (2022-present), Arizona head coach Chip Hale has contributed to over 9% (295) of the program’s all-time wins.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION: Arizona infielder Mathis Meurant, who was born and raised in France, is the lone player on the Wildcats roster from outside the United States. With assistance from Jeff Duda (@INTLBaseball24 on Twitter) and the French Baseball and Softball Federation it has been confirmed that, upon his Wildcat debut on opening weekend in Arlington, Meurant became the first French player at the Power Conference level in NCAA history. Meurant originally hails from Vaires-sur-Marne, a small town just east of Paris. Following a breakout performance in week two against San Diego in which he posted a 2.200 OPS, Meurant was selected as the Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Week, making him the first Arizona Baseball player to receive a Big 12 weekly award.

EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT: Arizona has consistently taken advantage of the large dimensions at Hi Corbett Field since moving there in 2012 — in the decade-plus since the move off campus, the Wildcats have swatted 2,539 extra-base hits. Over that stretch, only one current members of the Big 12 Conference have tallied more extra-base hits: Texas Tech (2,713). Across 13 seasons at Hi Corbett Field as members of the Pac-12 Conference, Arizona paced the league in doubles seven times and triples eight times; they currently lead the Big 12 and the nation with 31 triples.

IRON MAN: Wildcat infielder Garen Caulfield has logged nearly four full seasons in an Arizona uniform and has cemented himself among some of the most prolific players in program history. Since 2022, Caulfield has seen time in 220 games (212 starts) and tallied 831 at-bats, marks that rank 7th and 6th in Arizona Baseball history, respectively. With a minimum of three games likely remaining in the Wildcats season, Caulfield could reach as high as fifth in games played. He could also challenge for fifth all-time in at-bats.