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Lev’s No. 2:

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ baseball falls to Coastal Carolina in 2016 College World Series championship game

What went down: ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ rallied from a four-run deficit and had the tying run on third base in the ninth inning but couldn’t bring him home in a 4-3 loss to Coastal Carolina in the third and deciding game of the College World Series finals on June 30, 2016, in Omaha, Nebraska.

What we wrote at the time: The enduring image of the 2016 ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ baseball season won’t be the puffy, red eyes of dazed catcher Cesar Salazar.

It won’t be the Wildcats hanging over the dugout railing, lingering there as if they didn’t want their season to end — or couldn’t believe it was over.

It won’t be UA coach Jay Johnson incredulously putting up the stop sign with the tying run a mere 90 feet from the plate.

No, the lasting visual of 2016 will be pitcher Bobby Dalbec squeezing the shoulder and rubbing the back of crestfallen friend and teammate Cody Ramer in the midst of the calamitous inning that dashed ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s College World Series dream.

Camaraderie and heartbreak, encapsulated by a simple, human gesture.

“We’re just a team. We’re a brotherhood. We’re a family,â€� senior pitcher Nathan Bannister said after ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ lost 4-3 to Coastal Carolina in the third and deciding game of the CWS championship series Thursday.

The Wildcats’ character shined through again during and after their most devastating loss of the season.

A team picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12 had the tying run on third base in the final inning of the final game of the college baseball season and just couldn’t bring him home. The Wildcats had fought back from a 4-0 deficit and never believed they would lose until they ran out of outs.

The players consoled one another in the dugout. They fought back tears in the clubhouse. They answered every question asked of them and didn’t point any fingers.

“Proud doesn’t begin to express my feelings for those guys in that locker room,â€� said Johnson, the first-year coach who led ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to its first postseason berth since 2012. “It’s special. I don’t want to let them go.

“I wanted that so badly for them. It’s not going away for a while. We’ll regroup, because we have each other. (But) this is going to stick, and it’s nothing personally. It’s for those guys. They’re a national championship-caliber team.�

— Michael Lev

Player of the game: This is a tough one, because the player who had the best offensive performance, second baseman Ramer, also made the most critical mistake. So we’ll go with the bullpen duo of Cameron Ming and Cody Deason. They combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and enabling the Wildcats to rally. By the way: Starter Dalbec didn’t surrender an earned run either.

By the numbers: Several jump out, but we’ll spotlight a few here. One is four, the number of runs the Chanticleers scored in the fateful sixth inning — all unearned. Another is 10, the number of runners ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ left on base — only the third time in 15 postseason games that the Wildcats stranded 10 or more. Finally, there’s two — the number of errors ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ made, both by Ramer, on the same play in the sixth. The Wildcats had committed only seven errors in the preceding 14 postseason games.

The aftermath: ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ wasn’t expected to make it this far, this fast, so something of a program reset was needed. (Remember: This was several years before the advent of the transfer portal, which enables teams to reload with veteran players if they choose to go that route.)

The Wildcats made the NCAA Tournament the following season but failed to advance beyond regional play. They narrowly missed the tournament the next two seasons. It wasn’t until 2021 (most of the 2020 season was canceled because of COVID) that ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ made it back to the NCAAs — and back to Omaha.

Johnson left after that season to become the coach at LSU, where he won the 2023 national championship. UA great Chip Hale just completed his second season as the coach at his alma mater.

Seventeen members of the national runner-up team were selected in the 2016, ’17 and ’18 MLB Drafts. Seven have played at least one game in the majors.

Personal reflections: This game marked the end of a long journey for the Wildcats, and I was there for the duration. We were on the road “together� — in the same towns, ballparks and social circles — for nearly a month. Access to the coaches and players was extensive and often exclusive.

I didn’t succumb to the trap that snared William Miller in “Almost Famous,� but I felt closer to this team than any I’ve covered. That’s why it was so hard to stand adjacent to the dugout during the postgame ceremony, which, at the time, included the rewarding of a second-place trophy. It felt like cruel and unusual punishment.

The locker room was open, and that was a tough scene too — full of frustration, tears and consoling hugs. But almost everyone I wanted to talk to was willing to talk to me. Those players forever earned my respect.

The only player who was unavailable was Ramer, and it’s hard to blame him. He’d had an incredible season, batting .348 with more than 100 hits. He was as dependable as anyone on the roster. But he couldn’t handle a grounder that would’ve ended the top of the sixth without a run crossing the plate, and he compounded the error by making another, a wild throw toward third that scored a second run. (Ramer also was called out on a play at the plate that likely would’ve been overturned had replay been available. But that’s another story for another time.)

I felt terrible for Ramer — who had three of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s eight hits and reached base four times — but it was heartwarming to see and hear his teammates comfort and stand up for him.

The last half-inning was heart-stopping. Down 4-2, the Wildcats trimmed their deficit to one. With Ramer on first base and two outs, Ryan Aguilar sliced a double into the left field corner. Johnson, also the third base coach, had to hold Ramer at third. That brought up Ryan Haug, a superb defensive catcher who was forced into action after Salazar suffered a concussion.

Haug struck out on a 3-2 pitch with the tying run on third and the winning run on second. You can’t come closer to winning a national championship than that.

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