Sometimes it’s good to be hated, as long as it’s for the right reasons.
“I want teams to hate to play us, and to be very uncomfortable playing us,” Arizona Wildcats baseball coach Jay Johnson said Thursday. “That doesn’t have anything to do with anything other than the pressure that we apply while we’re playing.”
So far, that approach seems to be working. As Arizona (19-8, 5-4 Pac-12) reaches the halfway point of the regular season with Friday’s game against Cal, the first of a 3-game set at Hi Corbett Field, it is not only on pace to make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017 but in contention to host a regional for the first time since 2012 when the Wildcats went on to win the College World Series.