Husky baseball heads into Pac-12 tournament on turnaround tear

The Washington Husky baseball team was sliding toward others’ expectations a month ago. That, however, was a month ago.

The Huskies needed AJ Guerrero’s eighth-inning solo shot to preserve a 3-2 win Saturday in the regular-season finale. UW finished off its 12th straight victory heading into the postseason — tied with Stanford for the second-longest win streak in the country.

Guerrero, a freshman, helped make sure the Huskies stayed hot. He posted a .293 average, driving in 42 runs and homering 10 times this season, behind only Will Simpson’s 43 RBI and 11 homers.  

“He’s a smart hitter and he’s wise beyond his years,” coach Lindsay Meggs said, calling Guerrero an “old soul.”  

“He’s really patient. With that approach and his club-head speed, he’s going to be a really good hitter before it’s all over.”

The Huskies sat 6-15 in conference play on April 24. Bolstered by a 13-1 May, they head into the inaugural Pac-12 Tournament with the No. 7 seed and will face Oregon State at 4:45 p.m. PT on Wednesday in Scottsdale, Ariz. The winner of the double-elimination tournament receives the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Eight of the 11 Pac-12 teams — Colorado doesn’t field one — are invited to the tournament. It wasn’t looking like UW (30-24, 14-16 Pac-12) would make the cut in late April, when it had lost seven straight.

The group was at a “tipping point,” Meggs said. Part of his staff’s job was to encourage everyone to keep the faith.  

“We could have gone either direction and guys stayed with it,” Meggs said.

“A couple of balls bounced our way and we got hot at the plate — caught up to our pitching.”

The Huskies had introduced 22 new faces and were picked to finish second-to-last in the preseason coaches’ poll. It took longer than expected or desired, but familiarity helped.

“Until guys were more comfortable with each other, it was hard to push each other,” Meggs said.

There isn’t always a specific turning point to single out, but there’s an obvious one here — a 4-3 win against then-No. 6 Stanford on April 29.

“These guys are nationally ranked,” Guerrero recalled thinking. “We just beat them. What else can we do?”

The Huskies went on to take two of three from Stanford, the eventual Pac-12 regular-season title winners. A three-game sweep of No. 8 UCLA followed the next weekend.

“Then it was like, ‘We can do anything,’” Guerrero added.

UW’s staff sports a 4.25 ERA, good for fourth in the conference. Guerrero and fellow freshman Cam Clayton (.278, 25 RBI) heated up down the stretch, as did center fielder McKay Barney (.310, 22 RBI, team-high 71 hits). Catcher Johnny Tincher paced the regular starters with a .316 average.

UW outscored Northern Colorado 44-8 in the final four games of the regular season.  

The Huskies have made three NCAA tournament appearances since 2014. They advanced to the College World Series in 2018, but were ordered to vacate their wins that season after the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions ruled UW provided impermissible recruiting benefits.

Before any “most recent” numbers can be updated, the Huskies need to get through the second-seeded Beavers. UW made strides in just about every area, redshirt sophomore first baseman Simpson said, and is peaking at the ideal moment.

“Couldn’t have asked for that at a better time,” he said.