Where Arizona baseball was projected in 2020 NCAA Tournament fields

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Oh, to what might have been.

With a 10-5 record, a massively improved pitching staff and plenty of offensive punch, the Arizona Wildcats were heading into the Pac-12 baseball slate brimming with confidence. Keep up that performance in league play and a return to the NCAA Tournament was very likely.

Then the coronavirus happened, shutting down college baseball (as well as all sports) and wiping out any hope of Arizona ending its two-year postseason drought.

Memorial Day would have been when the Wildcats learned their fate, good or bad, with competition beginning on Friday. We’ll never know for certain what would have happened, but a handful of college baseball media outlets decided to project the NCAA tourney field anyway.

D1Baseball.com, College Sports Madness and Perfect Game all had Arizona making the postseason for the first time since 2017, though in each case its road to the College World Series would begin on the road.

Here’s a look at each projection:

• D1Baseball.com: No. 3 seed in Norman (Okla.) Regional, opening vs. Texas A&M. Other teams in pod were No. 11 overall seed Oklahoma and Seton Hall. Winner would face winner of Oxford (Miss.) Regional.
• College Sports Madness: No. 2 seed in Fayetteville (Ark.) Regional, opening vs. Wake Forest. Other teams in pod were No. 6 overall seed Arkansas and Navy. Winner would face winner of Palo Alto (Calif.) Regional.
• Perfect Game: PG created a 68-team field, similar to that of men’s basketball, rather than the normal 64, and turned everything into a best-of-3 series. This format had Arizona visiting LSU in Baton Rouge, La., with the winner taking on either No. 13 seed Clemson or Hartford.

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