14 Zona Baseball Players Enter Transfer Portal

[LSUDad]

14 Arizona baseball players listed in NCAA transfer portal, per D1Baseball

• By Brian J. Pedersen 
• on June 30, 2021 7:00 am

 

Arizona RHP Quinn Flanagan

 Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Some of the big names were already known, but now the entire crop of Arizona baseball players that have entered the NCAA transfer portal have been made public.

D1Baseball’s Transfer Tracker lists 14 members of the 2021 UA team in the portal, a dozen of which entered in the past day or so. That includes Freshman All-American Jacob Berry and third-year sophomores Branden Boissiere and Tyler Casagrande, whose entry into the portal was reported on Tuesday.

Infielder Kyson Donahue and 1B/LHP TJ Curd, both freshmen, had been in the portal as of last week.

Here are the other nine:

• LHP Ian Churchill (4th-year Jr.)
• RHP Bryce Collins (3rd-year Fr.)
• RHP Hunter Cope (2nd-year Fr.)
• RHP German Fajardo (2nd-year Fr.)
• RHP Quinn Flanagan (4th-year So.)
• C Kaden Hopson (2nd-year Fr.)
• RHP Ryan Kysar (1st-year Fr.)
• OF Blake Paugh (4th-year Jr.)
• UTIL Jacob Shaver (2nd-year Fr.)

The most significant name among those nine is Flanagan, who appeared in 19 games (all relief) in 2021 and had an 0-4 record with a 3.99 ERA. He started 17 games in 2019-20 and was 8-3 as a true freshman in 2019.

Churchill was 0-1 with an 8.56 ERA in 13 appearances in 2021, while Fajardo threw one-third of an inning during a game in the season-opening series against Ball State. Collins, Cope and Kysar did not play in 2021, with Collins missing the past two seasons while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Among the hitters, Paugh played in 23 games (10 starts) in 2021 and hit .258 with a home run and nine RBI, making 35 starts throughout his career. Hopson played in 21 games (three starts) and hit .143 with six RBI, while Shaver was 2 for 7 with an RBI in seven appearances.

College baseball players have until Thursday to enter the transfer portal and be eligible for the 2022 season, though there’s an expectation that deadline may be extended since the season technically doesn’t end until Wednesday (Mississippi State and Vanderbilt are playing for the College World Series title in Omaha).

While roughly a third of Arizona’s 2021 roster is in the portal, and several other players are either expected to get drafted—Boissiere is among them—or have exhausted their eligibility, the 2022 roster was going to have to shrink anyway. The NCAA put a 1-year moratorium on the roster size, which next year will go back to 35, to account for players using their extra year of eligibility to return to school.

The Wildcats are still set to return a lot of talent, however. Catcher Daniel Susac, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, announced on Twitter Tuesday he was coming back and that sentiment was echoed by several other players.

Players who have entered the transfer portal can still withdraw and return to their original teams, though in Arizona’s case that may depend on who it hires to replace Jay Johnson and how that coach goes about allocating the program’s 11.7 scholarships, which can be divided up among 27 players.

[LSUDad]

Here we go! 
 

Arizona baseball loses third 2022 commitment as Las Vegas P Mason Neville reopens recruitment

• By Brian J. Pedersen 
• on July 8, 2021 3:28 pm

 

Prep Baseball Report

Arizona has found its baseball coach in former Wildcat great Chip Hale, but it’s going to take more than that to convince recruits the program is in good hands.

A third commitment from Arizona’s 2022 recruiting class, Las Vegas left-handed pitcher Mason Neville, has reopened his recruitment. He cites the “recent coaching changes” for his decision.

Neville is ranked as the No. 30 high school prospect in the 2022 class, per PrepBaseballReport, one spot below outfielder Justin Crawford, another former UA commit who backed off his pledge in the wake of Jay Johnson’s departure to LSU. A third, California infielder Mikey Romero, flipped to LSU shortly after Johnson’s hire was made official.

Arizona still has 12 players committed for 2022, per Perfect Game. The Wildcats also have 14 players signed in the 2021 class, though some could end up getting picked in next week’s MLB Draft or opt to be released from their national letters of intent.

“This is a destination location for baseball,” Hale said Wednesday during his introductory press conference. “If you don’t think that, when I recruit you, you’re not going to be a Wildcat. This is where we’re going to grow Major League players. Anybody who is blessed to put this uniform on, I hope, has aspirations of playing professional baseball.”