A week ago, the door was slammed shut on any possibility baseball’s leading hitter from a year ago would play this season. Yesterday, that door opened a crack.

Colt Sedbrook, who hit .339 last season as a sophomore, has been ineligible to play in Arizona’s first 11 games this season due to personal reasons. But after appealing to university officials, circumstances changed yesterday morning.

“”There’s, believe it or not, a ray of hope that Mr. Sedbrook could be back,”” UA head coach Andy Lopez said before practice yesterday. “”I was notified this morning that there was a strong chance that he may be part of our program again on a game basis.””

Sedbrook, a second baseman who has been allowed to practice with the team, could make his return to the lineup this weekend against UNLV.

“”It was kind of like an ongoing thing,”” Sedbrook said of the appeal. “”There were a lot of circumstances that went the different ways. There was a lot of ‘He said, she said’ kind of stuff.””

Though nothing is definitive, Lopez said he’d “”heard from a pretty good source that (Sedbrook) has a real strong chance of being with us”” against UNLV.

“”There’s one more thing (to resolve),”” Sedbrook said. “”Other than that, we’ll find out. I’m probably going to go (to Las Vegas) this weekend.””

Sedbrook’s return would likely push freshman Kevin Rodland from the lineup and bump right fielder Jon Gaston down from the leadoff spot in the batting order.

Without the Broomfield, Colo., native, Arizona is hitting .324 as a team with a .401 on-base percentage.

Last season, Sedbrook started all 55 games, led off on occasion and led the team with a .455 OBP. He had six home runs and knocked in 34 RBIs.

“”It’s something that I regret, and I’m learning from this experience,”” Sedbrook said. “”I didn’t want to put my team through this.””