UA baseball: Troupe ready to put 2013 behind him, look to starting role next year

Mat Troupe stood on the UCLA pitcher’s mound in early May, 18 miles from his hometown of Northridge, Calif., and what to him seemed like a million miles away from success.

College baseball: Arizona State 7, Arizona 5: UA pitching falls short

ASU's Kasey Coffman steals second in the fourth inning, beating the tag of UA second baseman Trent Gilbert. Coffman had two stolen bases.

College baseball: Arizona State 7, Arizona 5: UA pitching falls short

UA's Riley Moore, caught in a rundown, eludes the tag of ASU second baseman James McDonald in the fifth. Moore, who made it back to first safely, singled in two to put UA up 5-4.

College baseball: Arizona State 7, Arizona 5: UA pitching falls short

Arizona Wildcats coach Andy Lopez joked this season that closer Mat Troupe has almost driven him to start smoking cigarettes and has cost him valuable hours of sleep.

Arizona Wildcats baseball: After title, players quickly make exodus to various leagues

Johnny Field and his Arizona Wildcats teammates arrived in Tucson at noon on Tuesday, where the 2012 NCAA national champions were greeted by 5,000-plus fans at McKale Center.

Young UA stars may see Omaha again

An Arizona fan holds cutouts of shortstop Alex Mejia, left, and pitcher Kurt Heyer. Both players are likely to turn pro, but the Wildcats' future is bright.

UA baseball: Young UA stars may see Omaha again

OMAHA, Neb. - The Arizona Wildcats boarded a charter plane for Tucson on Tuesday morning, their NCAA baseball championship trophy buckled into a front-row seat between two pillows.

Back-to-back doubles, steely efforts in relief help UA win opener

OMAHA, Neb. - The Arizona Wildcats' first College World Series game since 2004 was a showcase of styles and a battle of wills.

Arizona baseball: Pen holding back Wildcats

The topic was relief pitching, and Andy Lopez was quoting Albert Einstein's idea about insanity. Two 18th-century poets, Robert Burns and Alexander Pope, were warming up in his brain's bullpen, ready to impart some long-forgotten insight into a talk about when it's OK to pull a pitcher.