Arizona upsets Rice with walkoff steal of home plate (Video)
The college baseball season has been serving as a nice appetizer ahead of MLB’s return. That continued on Saturday with a thrilling finish in Tucson, Ariz, as the unranked Arizona Wildcats upset the Rice Owls, 7-6, on a walkoff steal of home plate.
Yes, you read that correctly. A walkoff steal of home. And not one of those steals where a bunch of runners are out there attempting to trick the defense into throwing the ball around. It was a straight up steal of home by Arizona junior Kevin Newman, and it was glorious.
[Baseball is back! Check out Yahoo For Spring Training for great spring training pics.]
With the game obviously tied, two outs and two runners on base in the ninth inning, Newman zoned in on Rice closer Matt Ditman and realized he wasn’t even on the pitcher’s radar. As Ditman worked from the windup, Newman started down the line and kept going. His path to the plate was clear with a left-handed batter at the plate, and the steal was a success as catcher Hunter Kopycinski failed to adjust and mishandled the low and outside delivery.
Of course, if Kopycinski catches it clean, Nemwan would have been out. But the results are all that matter here, and the results were exhilarating for Arizona.
From Rice’s perspective, it was a total disaster inning, and the steal of home was just the exclamation point. Leading 6-5 when the inning began, Rice committed four errors that led to the finish, including a collision at first base that knocked the baseball from covering second baseman Ford Stainback’s glove and allowed the tying run to score.
If they eliminate any of those errors, chances are the finish is different, and Newman never even has the chance to race home.
[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Baseball: Sign up and join a league today!]
As for the frequency of walkoff steals, Grant Van Putten of Calvin College was able to pull one off last April, but it’s still a rarity at the higher levels of baseball. In fact, the last time it happened in MLB was all the way back on Aug 22. 1982, when Glenn Brummer of the St. Louis Cardinals swiped home on Gary Lavelle of the San Francisco Giants. That would make it more rare than other unusual endings like walkoff wild pitches and even the dreaded walkoff balk.
Needless to say, it’s a low percentage play regardless of the situation, but Newman’s instincts and courage won out this time around.
BLS H/N: Eye on Baseball
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – – –
Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
