Chip Hale discusses importance of Omaha appearance for Arizona

Things looked grim for Arizona when it dropped the opening game of the Chapel Hill Super Regional 18-2 to host North Carolina, but head coach Chip Hale‘s team, however, regrouped and won the next two games to punch its ticket to Omaha. The Wildcats are now headed back to the Men’s College World Series for the first time since 2021.

Hale, who played college baseball at Arizona and has coached the program since 2022, is headed to his first College World Series as a head coach. He discussed the importance of Arizona getting back to Omaha and more in his opening comments on Thursday.

“Obviously it’s a huge honor to be here in Omaha,” Hale said. “This is 75 years. It’s amazing. I was here in 1985 and 1986 with the Wildcats on our World Series teams and a lot has changed since then. But we’re just proud to bring the Wildcats back and get Arizona back on the map here in Omaha. Hopefully, this is the first of many visits for us.”

This year’s appearance in Omaha marks Arizona‘s 19th in program history. It boasts four National Championships (1976, 1980, 1986 and 2012) and four runner-up finishes (1956, 1959, 1963 and 2016).

Unlike last year’s Men’s College World Series Field (four SEC teams and four ACC teams), this year’s field includes eight teams from seven different conferences.

“I didn’t know that we were all new teams, the eight teams, until yesterday,” Hale responded when asked about the makeup of this year’s field. “It’s pretty cool. It just shows you, especially for the West Coast in UCLA, Oregon State and Arizona, that we hear that all the time. Obviously, recruiting is pretty difficult now because the SEC has been really strong in our areas. We kind of got together as a staff at Arizona and said ‘Hey, we can’t complain about this.’ These kids are going because they’re on ESPN every weekend. They’ve got great fans down there. The only way this changes is if we get back to Omaha. For us and for everybody on the west coast if we want to change this.”

Arizona opens play in this year’s event on Friday at 1:00 pm CT/2:00 pm ET against Coastal Carolina. Just like the Wildcats did, the Chanticleers went on the road and knocked off Super Regional host Auburn to punch its ticket to the College World Series for the first time since it won the National Championship in 2016.