‘Backs against the wall': Arizona plots unlikely CWS run through loser’s bracket

OMAHA, Neb. — Built like a collegiate linebacker, catcher Adonys Guzman might be the least likely starter, on Arizona’s baseball team, to lay down a bunt.

On Friday, the 5-11, 222-pounder did so for a hit that helped the Wildcats score two sixth inning runs that gave them a brief lead in their College World Series opener.

“Thankfully I squeezed it past the defenders,” Guzman said after Arizona’s 7-4 loss to Coastal Carolina. He went into the at-bat knowing he’d bunt, too.

What might seem old-fashioned — even verboten — in a collegiate park becomes part of the strategy at Schwab Field, with its power alleys at 375 feet, which play even deeper when a south wind blows in toward home plate, as it did (gently) on Friday. The wind did the same on Saturday, prompting UCLA star Roch Cholowsky, with 23 homers, to bunt on his own in a key spot.

The CWS often boils down to manufactured runs. Arizona (44-20) will have to hammer out four games worth of them just to make the championship series.

“This is that four-team deal,” Hale said of Arizona’s side of the bracket, which includes Sunday opponent Louisville, Oregon State and Coastal Carolina. “So it’s not just like winning two more games. We’re going to have to win a bunch of games. To do that we’ll have to fight and battle and scratch.”

Step 1: Winning the 11 a.m. Sunday loser’s bracket game over the Cardinals, who dropped a 4-3 walk-off defeat to Oregon State Friday night. Louisville beat Arizona 13-1 in mid-February at the Shriner’s Children College Showdown; it was part of a winless season-opening weekend for the Wildcats that included losses to Mississippi and Clemson.

Louisville’s struggles came later, in May, when it lost six of its last seven headed into the NCAA tournament. The Cardinals knocked off No. 1 Vanderbilt in the Regional round, then beat Miami (Florida) in the Super Regional, to make the CWS.

Friday night, UL’s ninth inning comeback to tie the game at 3 — aided by Beaver errors — was quickly dashed by OSU’s answer in the bottom of the ninth.

“When we get a loss during the season, we usually come back with an edge,” Louisville pitcher Patrick Forbes said afterward. “We’re definitely hungry after this … that’s why they give you two losses.”

Arizona gladly hit the reset button during its Super Regional series against North Carolina, which beat the Wildcats 18-2 in a Friday game before UA won the next two to advance to Omaha.

Friday’s loss, Arizona slugger Mason White said, was a “familiar feeling” for a team that struggled in series-opening games this season.

“We did it twice in North Carolina,” White said. “We battled and then that’s what our whole season has been, battling back from tough things we had to face.”

Raul Garayzar (2-0, 2.81 earned-run average) has been Arizona’s No. 2 starter in recent weeks, with his best work coming in a 12-1 win over West Virginia, against which he threw six scoreless innings. But the 6-4, 219-pound senior got just three outs at UNC — allowing two runs on two hits and three walks.

Smith Bailey, Arizona’s No. 3 starter, started against Louisville earlier this year — striking out five over four scoreless innings — and would be pitching on normal rest should he start Sunday.

On Friday, Arizona faced a Coastal Carolina team willing to burn one of its starters, Cameron Flukey, as a reliever.

“They’re probably going to use everybody they can every game, just like we’re going to have to now,” Hale said Friday. “Our backs are against the wall.”

And bunts — even from the big catcher — are in play.