Arizona Baseball: Wildcats left out of NCAA Baseball Tournament Field of 64

In a not so surprising turn of events, the Wildcats with their 34-21 record were not included in the 2013 NCAA Tournament field.

"I'm always disappointed" said head coach Andy Lopez.

"I take full responsibility for failing them so to speak. Life's not fair sometimes."

"It is what it is" said Brandon Dixon. "I don't know how it works, it's an unfortunate situation for us."

"Not making it to our goal is obviously disappointing" Konner Wade continued.

"It's a tough moment for all of us" added Johnny Field. "We thought down the stretch we might have played well enough to sneak in there."

Field continued, "We'll come back stronger from this, everyone from the seniors to the freshmen....we'll move on from this and we'll be fine. There's no reason to look back and beat yourself up now that it's over with."

Only four PAC-12 teams made the cut, which is sort of surprising. Oregon State obtained the No. 3 National Seed, with Oregon grabbing the No. 8 slot. UCLA will also host a regional and is essentially the No. 12 National Seed. Arizona State will travel to Fullerton as the 2 seed to take on No. 5 National Seed Cal State Fullerton. The Sun Devils will face the New Mexico Lobos before having to play either the Titans or Columbia, a team Arizona split a two-game series with early in the year.

No Stanford even after they took two-of-three from UCLA this past weekend.

"We were up all last night looking into it....we thought that at least five would get in, maybe six" said Field. "It's weird seeing only four teams get in this year."

The one conference in question is the SEC, which got nine teams in the postseason field. Andy Lopez had some strong thoughts on the difference between the SEC and the PAC-12. He was the head coach at Florida from 1995-2001 before coming to U of A.

"Here's the reality of it: I lived in the Southeastern Conference seven years, and in the Southeastern Conference you get rewarded for an average year, aka Florida, and in the west coast, you don't get rewarded, you get punished. There's no way four teams from the PAC-12, shouldn't happen, come on." said Andy Lopez. "There's seven national championships in the conference" among the head coaches.

The PAC-12 also ranked third in terms of conference RPI, behind the SEC and the ACC.

"I knew when I was in the SEC, if you had an average year, you got rewarded. You can't have an average year on the west coast, you get punished."

"I really do wish the Pacific 12 were given a little more respect, and I'm not saying just in baseball." Lopez went on to talk about how Oregon won the PAC-12 basketball tournament and ended up being a 12 seed in the tournament. "Pacific 12 just does not get a lot of respect....I know the impression that was in the SEC in terms of the PAC-12, in terms of baseball, in terms of west coast."

Andy Lopez on the three factors of why the Wildcats didn't get in: "1. We're on the west coast. 2. We threw away the Stanford series. 3. We're in the PAC-12."

"Florida lost nine of their last eleven conference games. Are you kidding me? If we had lost nine of our last eleven conference games you guys would have been tearing this place down (Hi Corbett) and turning it into a Wal-Mart."

"Three series, obviously, now that it's shaken down killed us." Auburn cancelling Arizona's trip to face the Tigers after the SEC expanded to include Missouri and Texas A&M, which forced the Wildcats to host Coppin State. "And then Washington and Stanford."

The weird thing: this year's team has 34 wins in the regular season. Last year's: 38. Four wins is really the difference between hosting a regional and being out of the tournament? Really?

"I don't know, I thought 34 wins would be enough. 34 wins in the SEC you're probably hosting. 34 wins in the PAC, hey, have a nice time at your summer camps."

For the complete bracket, you can find it right now over at PerfectGame.Org