Arizona Wildcats Final '07 Rank: 22 42-17

Arizona ended the ’07 season with an impressive 42-17 overall record which included a second place Pac-10 finish (15-9), a three game sweep over eventual national champion Oregon State, wins over two other CWS teams (Arizona State and Cal State Fullerton) and a sixteen game win streak in which they outscored their opponents 139-63. Unfortunately however they ran into an equally stout Wichita State ballclub in the postseason, suffering a pair of losses at the hands of the Shockers in the Sunflower State to send them back to Tucson.

Postseason the Wildcats lost a pair of senior team leaders in offensive stalwart Brian Rhinehart and Saturday starter Brad Mills. Rhinehart captured the team’s triple crown (.372, 13, 66) and twice hit for the cycle. Mills’ 9-4 record and steady improvement earned him a fourth round draft selection by the Toronto Blue Jays. Nonetheless, head coach Andy Lopez will retain the majority of his lineup and should have the ‘Cats in contention nationally in ’08.

Arizona’s number one returning weapon is the unanimous choice by the Pac-10 coaches as the league’s top pitcher, junior Preston Guilmet. The right-hander finished fourth nationally in total strikeouts (146), tied for seventh in wins (12) and was 10th in ERA (1.87). He’ll be joined in the weekend rotation by David Coulon who, despite being drafted by the Colorado Rockies, will return to Tucson looking to build upon his 4-3 record in which he nearly struck out a better an inning (68.2 IP, 62 K) and improve his 5.01 ERA. Sophomore Jason Stoffel will once again man the Wildcat bullpen, along with junior Daniel Schlereth who has tore his cartilage while warming up before a game in March. The tandem combined for 13 saves and eight wins. Stoffel fanned 55 batters in only 43.1 innings as a freshman, making the most of his opportunity to shine when Sclereth went out. Despite the injury, Schlereth was drafted in the eighth round by the Oakland Athletics. He is the son of former NFL player and current ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth and has his father’s football mindset; Schlereth entered the game after he was injured and pitched two perfect innings for the save against Arizona State.

Offensively, Arizona will be led by first baseman C.J. Ziegler and outfielder Brad Glenn. Twice the pair hit back to back-to-back jacks in ’07 and they’ll be looking to cooperatively put the kibosh on more opponents’ offerings in ’08. The duo each had double digit homeruns (Ziegler 13, Glenn 10) and Ziegler posted 63 RBI while Glenn added 62. Ziegler also led the team with 59 runs scored and 23 doubles. Infielder Colt Sedbrook has a tremendous propensity to get on base by any means necessary. He set the school career hit by pitch mark in just two seasons after getting plunked 26 times in ’06 and 16 times last year. However he doesn’t get on base just by getting beaned. He batted .335 to place third on the team and added 18 walks as well. On the basepaths, sophomore Robert Abel and junior T.J. Steele will be looking to increase their stolen base mark to felony status level in 2008 after teaming up to steal 42 bases in 47 attempts last year.