ROUND-ONE WIN. BYU pitchers Justis Reiser and Ashton Johnson combined to scatter just six hits over nine scoreless innings as 12-seed BYU upset 5-seed Arizona State in the first round of the Big 12 Championship on Wednesday morning. Both Reiser and Johnson recorded season-long outings as BYU recorded its first shutout since 2023 and held ASU scoreless for the first time this season. The Sun Devils entered the game leading the Big 12 in batting average, runs scored, hits, doubles and slugging percentage.
Despite scoring just two runs, the Cougars' patient hitting forced a combined 12 free bases from four ASU pitchers. BYU's two hurlers combined for 113 pitches while the Sun Devils' pitch count reached 200.
WE MEET AGAIN. The Cougars dropped two of three games (12-5, 4-5, 5-7) from then No. 22 Arizona in a regular-season series on April 17-19 at Miller Park. BYU trailed 5-4 in game one before running away from the Wildcats with an eight-run bottom of the seventh. Despite coming up short in the series, shortstop Ryder Robinson garnered Big 12 Co-Player of the Week honors with a 7-of-13 showing at the plate with three runs, two doubles, two homers, four RBI and 15 total bases. Robinson finished the series versus the Wildcats slugging 1.154 with an on-base percentage of .571.
Leftfielder Tate Gambill registered four runs with two doubles and three RBI on 6-of-14 hitting against Arizona, while centerfielder Crew McChesney hit 4-of-13 to tally four runs, two doubles and five RBI in the series.
FLASHBACK TO THE WAC. BYU and Arizona meet for the 35th time on Thursday, including the 18th time in a conference tournament and 19th overall in the postseason. The Wildcats hold a 24-10 lead in the all-time series and won the last postseason meeting in a 7-3 decision on May 23, 1985 at the NCAA Fresno Regional—the only previous neutral site meeting
Seventeen of the previous 34 meetings between BYU and Arizona came as members of the Western Athletic Conference from the 1963 to 1978. With BYU in the WAC North Division and Arizona in the South, the two met 15 times in the WAC Tournament with the most recent meeting as conference foes in an 8-4 Wildcat win on May 20, 1978. Arizona leads the all-time series 12-3 in conference tournament play.
KNOW THE FOE. Since winning the series with BYU in mid-April, Arizona lost Big 12 series to Texas Tech and Utah while winning series over TCU and Houston.
Outfielder Aaron Walton and infielder Mason White power the Wildcats bats in head coach Chip Hale's fourth season at the helm. Walton leads Arizona in batting average (.317), runs (60) and doubles (18) while White does so in hits (69), home runs (13) and RBI (59).
Fourteen-game starter Smith Bailey headlines the Wildcat pitching staff with a team-leading 4.52 ERA and 62 strikeouts to 25 walks in 65-and-two-thirds innings of action. Reliever Tony Pluta leads the Big 12 with 11 saves on the season. Pluta holds a 1.65 ERA with 26 strikeouts to five walks in 27.1 innings.
