Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend.

I’ll get to the Wildcats below, but first, there were no shortage of storylines to follow along with this past weekend, but the D-backs commanded most of the attention. First, the team announced ace Corbin Burnes will have Tommy John surgery, ending his season while starting a very long road to recovery.

To add insult to (literal) injury, the Diamondbacks were swept in Cincinnati, bringing any semblance of a midseason rally to a screeching halt over a span of just three games. Stay tuned to the PHNX Sports Daily, because I’ll have much more on this in the coming days.

On to the show!

Wildcats Overcome Adversity, Advance to College World Series

The Arizona baseball team put on an absolute clinic in resiliency over the weekend.

The Wildcats are heading to the College World Series as a result.

Arizona (44-19) completed a stunning comeback just two days after suffering an embarrassing 18-2 defeat to the No. 5 Tar Heels (46-15) at the Chapel Hill Super Regional, defeating North Carolina 4-3 on Sunday to advance to its 19th College World Series.

Sunday’s win came in typical fashion, with the Wildcats rallying in the eighth to turn a 3-1 deficit to a 4-3 advantage. Reliever Casey Hintz and closer Tony Pluta shut the Tar Heels down over the final two innings to punch their ticket to Omaha.

Pluta recorded his program-record 14th save in the win.

Wildcats Aim For Fifth-Ever National Championship

Arizona’s 19 appearances at the College World Series are tied for seventh-most in the nation, and this is the team’s first trip to Omaha under fifth-year head coach Chip Hale. The Wildcats have made eight appearances in the National Championship, winning four of them, and last emerged victorious in 2012.

The other three titles came in 1976, 1980 and 1986 — Hale was a player on that 1986 team — and the Wildcats finished as runner-up in 1956, 1959, 1963 and 2016.

As fate would have it, Arizona’s opponent this week is Coastal Carolina, which just happens to be the team that defeated the Wildcats in the College World Series title game in 2016. The No. 13 Chanticleers swept their way through the Auburn Super Regional, defeating the Tigers en route to their first appearance in the College World Series since 2016.

That matchup between the Wildcats and Chanticleers was the only time the two programs have met. Arizona won the first game of the series 3-0, but Coastal Carolina rallied for 5-4 and 4-3 wins on their way to a national title.

Specific details on Arizona’s game against Coastal Carolina are expected later today.

The double-elimination tournament features eight teams, broken into two groups of four, and the winners of each bracket then face off for all the marbles in a best-of-three series.

Chip Hale’s Take: “I’m just so happy for these kids. I’m happy for these families. They have grinded so hard, spent so much money coming here and raising these kids, putting them in travel baseball and high school baseball. Now, they get a payoff to go to Omaha. We’re going to go there and put our best foot forward and try to win our fifth national championship.”

When the Going Gets Tough: The D-backs had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad weekend. With adversity comes opportunity, though, and Arizona opens up a six-game home stand today, starting with three games against the Mariners before hosting a critical divisional set against the Padres.

Stormy Weather: The Mercury (6-4) fell 89-77 to the Storm at home on Saturday, but will remain in The Valley for a matchup against Dallas on Wednesday. Satou Sabally led all Phoenix players with 22 points, while Lexi Helf contributed 14 off the bench.

Another Win: Rising FC earned a 3-1 win over Orange County on Saturday, and have not lost a match since a 1-0 defeat to San Antonio on April 26. The win kept Rising square in fifth place in the USL Western Conference table. Phoenix is back in action on Saturday at FC Tulsa, and actually does not return home until a July 4 matchup against Lexington SC.

It’s a Little Drafty: Make sure to check out the NBA Diehard Draft Guide — Led by ALLCITY draft analysts Derek Bodner of PHLY and Will Gottlieb of CHGO, this guide is your one-stop-shop as teams across the league gear up to reshape their rosters

Note the Diehard draft guide is best viewed on desktop or tablet!

Tip Of The Hat By Branded Bills

What a meaningful scene in Chapel Hill!