With a lack of nearby opponents to play midweek games against, Arizona and ASU traditionally play a single nonconference game on a weeknight in addition to their regular 3-game series. This one-off game is normally later in the season, often after the series.
But this time around when the Sun Devils (12-4) come to Hi Corbett Field on Tuesday night it will serve as a prelude to the Big 12 slate, which begins for both teams on Friday. Arizona (11-4) hosts Cincinnati this weekend, while ASU is at TCU.
And though this game won’t count toward the Big 12 standings it won’t have any less importance for either team.
“It’s a big deal for us,” UA coach Chip Hale said after Sunday’s 5-3 win over Pepperdine, which ran his team’s home record to 8-0. “We want to win. We’re going to play to win. We’re going to pitch our best guys.”
Arizona will start senior right-hander Raul Garayzar against ASU freshman lefty Easton Barrett. Garayzar has a 2.70 ERA in four games totaling 6.2 innings this season, his last appearance coming against defending College World Series champ Tennessee on March 2 in Houston.
The Wildcats will go with a bullpen game, as it did the last time the teams met last April when they used nine pitchers in a 5-3 win in Phoenix.
ASU took two of three in Tucson last year, winning the first two games of the series before the Wildcats won the finale. Before that victory Arizona was 7-11 and sat at 10-14 in late March before winning 11 in a row and 16 of 17 en route to the Pac-12 regular season and conference tournament titles and an NCAA regional host.
Garayzar, from Rio Rico, is one of 15 Arizona natives on the UA roster, while ASU has 13.
“It means a lot, especially when you grow up in Phoenix,” UA reliever Garrett Hicks, who went to high school in Buckeye before spending two seasons at Pima College, of the rivalry.