'Fresh start' for Wildcat baseball in College World Series

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team is glad May is over and the players are ready for a fresh start after a horrendous month which saw the go 4-10.

“What can you do? It’s a fresh start,” said Wildcat sophomore catcher Jett Bandy.. “It’s time to get hot and work our way to Omaha, Neb." for the College World Series.

The Wildcats will be the third seed for the Fort Worth, Texas regional and one of eight Pac-10 teams to be represented in the CWS.

“I feel really good about it and it was a little nerve wracking,” said Bandy  “We were the last name to come up and we are really pumped.”

The catcher has been a integral part of UA’s team this year and was named as a semifinalist for the 2010 Coleman Company Johnny Bench Award.

The Wildcats (33-22, 12-15 Pac-10) will face No. 2 Baylor (34-22) in the regional on Friday at noon. The Cats have had success against the Bears, going 6-3 against them. The teams last met in 2004, with Arizona beating them twice in a three game matchup.

In the regional, hosted by Texas Christian University, the Cats have faced all of the teams in the past and have a winning record against them all.

In 2004, the Cats advanced to Omaha, where they were eliminated by Georgia.

Arizona last played TCU in 2004 also, defeating them 5-2 in the Round Rock College Classic in Texas. UA holds a 7-1 record over the Horned Frogs.

Fourth seeded Lamar is the only team that has had some distance between last meetings with the Cats. The two teams met in 1979 for two games and UA won both.

Arizona will face either TCU/Lamar on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Pac-10 = preparation for postseason

The Wildcats will join seven other Pac-10 teams in the College World Series. Arizona St. was the nation’s overall No. 1 seed and UCLA was the No. 6 overall national seed.

Washington State, Stanford, Oregon State, California, Oregon also were placed in one of the regionals around the country.

“The Pac-10 is the best conference this year,” Bandy said. “Playing those teams has helped us prepare for the teams that we will play. It has boosted our confidence and prepared us for teams that we might see.”