Arizona baseball head coach Jay Johnson said he was “heartbroken” after the college baseball season was cut short, but it was “necessary and understandable” based on what is happening in our world due to coronavirus.

After defeating Texas on the road to secure a crucial win, the Wildcats took 2 out of 3 games at Hi Corbett Field over Houston to carry some momentum heading into what was supposed to be the start of Pac-12 conference play. However, little did they know, that would be their final game of the season. 

The Wildcats were supposed to play ASU on March 10 in Phoenix, but it was postponed due to inclement weather. That set up Arizona to open up conference play at home against Oregon State in what would have been the Wildcats’ new associate head coach Nate Yeskie’s first time playing against his former team. 

However, in the days following the Wildcats postponement against the Sun Devils, the whole sports world took a hit day by day as the NBA announced it had suspended its season before the NCAA announced it was going to cancel all remaining winter and spring championships, including the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments. 

This hurts so much for the four Wildcat seniors, all of whom were pitchers, as their season was cut short. These players were Nate Brown, Vince Vannelle, Preston Price and Davis Vainer. The NCAA announced last week that student-athletes who participated in spring sports will not lose a year of eligibility over the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Council leadership agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate for all Division I student-athletes who participated in spring sports,” the NCAA said in a statement last Friday. “Details of eligibility relief will be finalized at a later time. Additional issues with NCAA rules must be addressed, and appropriate governance bodies will work through those in the coming days and weeks.”

Here is coach Johnson’s full statement over the situation, which he posted to his Twitter account on Wednesday:

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