On Saturday, the Arizona Wildcats won the 2025 Big 12 Championship at Globe Life Field after defeating TCU 2-1.
Arizona’s championship is its second consecutive conference tournament title; they won the Pac-12 Tournament championship a year ago.
Sawyer Strosnider got the scoring going in the game as he scored off Noah Franco grounding out. This gave the Horned Frogs a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
The next run would not come until the ninth inning. Arizona outfielder Andrew Cain came up clutch with a solo home run to tie the game up and send it into extra innings.
The Wildcats would score quickly after that. In the top of the tenth inning, Maddox Mihalakis hit an RBI knock into center field that scored his teammate, Mason White. This gave Arizona a 2-1 lead.
Tony Pluta pitched the Wildcats to victory and closed out the game in the bottom of the tenth. He got credited for the win and struck out three TCU batters in the two innings he pitched.
He also allowed just one hit during his appearance late in the championship game in Arlington, Texas.
White ended up winning the Big 12 Championship Most Outstanding Player Award. Over the course of the tournament, he went 7-for-11 with three home runs and seven RBI.
White gave his thoughts on Arizona’s Big 12 title postgame during the trophy ceremony.
“It’s a repeat of last year when we won the Pac-12 Tournament,” White said. “To do it again in a bigger yard [ballpark] and in a different conference shows how great this program is.”
Arizona head coach Chip Hale also gave his thoughts on the win during the trophy ceremony.
“We’re so proud to represent the Big 12 going into regional play next week,” Hale said. “I think this conference has been difficult for us, and we battled our tails off. I think we’re playing our best baseball right now. I’m just proud of the resiliency of this group.
Up Next
Arizona, along with other Big 12 teams, will wait to hear their names called during the NCAA Selection Show on May 26 to see if they will be playing in the NCAA Tournament.
The show is scheduled for a start time of noon EDT and will be televised on ESPN2.
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More NCAA Coverage: https://worldbaseball.com/league/ncaa/
