ARLINGTON, Texas — The Arizona Wildcats (37-18) are set for a semifinal showdown against the West Virginia Mountaineers (41-13) on Friday afternoon at the Big 12 Baseball Championship.

Friday's game at Globe Life Field is set for 2:00 p.m. MST with a television broadcast on ESPN+ and a radio broadcast on Wildcats Radio 1290 AM, with the latter featuring play-by-play from Brian Jeffries.

The Wildcats defeated the BYU Cougars, 4-1, in their Big 12 Championship debut on Thursday morning, securing a rematch with the Mountaineers played for a spot in the championship game.

Arizona infielder Mason White swatted a pair of extra-base hits in Thursday's game, giving him 103 in his career while moving him past his head coach, Chip Hale, and into a tie for second on the Wildcats all-time extra-base hit leaderboard.

For more, a complete game preview is below.
 

Date	Opponent	Time (MST)	Arizona Pitcher	Opponent Pitcher
Friday, MAy 23	[1] West Virginia	2:00 PM	RHP Raul Garayzar (1-0, 2.45)	RHP Jack Kartsonas (6-2, 2.29)

Leading Off...

• The Arizona Wildcats advanced to the semifinal round of the Big 12 Baseball Championship, where they will face off against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Friday afternoon.
• Friday's game will be televised on ESPN+ with Clay Matvick (PxP) and Mike Rooney (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 Mountaineers have faced off six times previously, with games dating back to 2023 and the series even at 3-3. 
• Arizona won 2-of-3 matchups in their most recent meeting, a three-game series played in Morgantown in late March. The Wildcats won game one 6-4 in a 16-inning marathon, dropped game two 3-11, and won the rubber match 11-4.
• 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 tied for second in program history with 43 career home runs. He now sits 12 home runs shy of a tie for the Arizona record. Of his 43 career home runs, 30 have been hit away from Hi Corbett Field at road/neutral venues.
• Reliever Tony Pluta currently leads the Big 12 and ranked top 10 nationally with 12 saves. His 12 saves are the second most in a single season in program history and are one 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 has advanced to the semifinal round in all four conferences tournaments they have played in.
• Arizona holds an 9-4 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).

CATS COACHES: The Wildcats are led this season by fourth-year head coach Chip Hale — he was hired on July 5, 2021. Hale, the Wildcats all-time leader in games played, hits, and total bases during his time in Tucson from 1984-87, brought nearly two decades of professional coaching experience to Arizona. During his collegiate career, Hale helped steer the 1986 Arizona Wildcats to their third NCAA National Championship. His professional coaching career was highlighted by a stint as the manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks (2015-16) and a World Series championship with the Washington Nationals in 2019. Hale is once again joined by assistant coaches Toby DeMello, Trip Couch, and Kevin Vance. DeMello, who joined the Wildcats from Sacramento State in 2022, was promoted from volunteer assistant into a full-time coaching role after his second season in Tucson. Since arriving, he has helped craft one of the most dangerous offenses in America, one that has averaged 7.15 runs per game and batted .289 under his guidance. Couch, one of the nation's top recruiting coordinators, joined the Wildcats in the same role in 2022 after splitting the previous 11 years between Houston and South Carolina. Across his decades of collegiate coaching experience, Couch has made 14 NCAA postseason appearances, developed 15 All-Americans, and directly coached 42 MLB Draft selections. The Wildcats newest full-time staff addition was assistant coach Kevin Vance, who arrived in Tucson prior to the 2024 season to develop the Arizona pitching staff. Vance's staff led the entire nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio and BB/9 rate last year while dropping their ERA over a run and a half, the 20th best improvement in the country.

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 14 more so far this year, White is now tied for second in program history with 43 dingers. He has also piled up 103 career extra-base hits, tied for the second most in program history. He passed his current head coach, Chip Hale, with two XBH on May 22 against BYU.

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 52 games, Guzman has posted a .307 batting average (59-for-192) with 38 runs scored, 10 doubles, seven home runs, and 35 RBI, all of which are career-high marks. In addition to his contributions at the plate, Guzman has started 46 games behind the plate and posted an impressive 4.79 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 12 saves this year and 14 for his career, Pluta finds himself ranked second on the Wildcats single-season charts and tied for fifth on the Arizona career leaderboard. Pluta leads the Big 12 and ranks top 10 nationally with 12 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.

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 221 games (213 starts) and tallied 835 at-bats, marks that rank t-6th 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 fourth all-time in at-bats.