Arizona baseball notebook: Aiden May transfers to Oregon State, former pitching coach Dave Lawn headed to TCU

Arizona had a surprise departure from its starting rotation last week when Aiden May jumped into the NCAA transfer portal at the last minute. He didn’t stay in there long, and the Wildcats may end up facing him next season.

May announced on Twitter Monday night that he had committed to play in 2024 at Oregon State, whom Arizona will host next spring at Hi Corbett Field.

A right-handed pitcher, May made 16 starts for the UA in his one season on the team after coming over from Pima College, including twice in the Pac-12 Tournament and another in the NCAA Tournament. He was 5-3 with a 6.33 ERA, striking out 77 batters in 75.1 innings, but he also walked 33 and allowed opponents to hit .314.

Despite the numbers, May was considered by Arizona’s coaches to have the best “stuff” on the staff. The arrival of new pitching coach Kevin Vance from Boston College figured to be a boon for someone like May, but instead he’ll head into his draft-eligible season with an Oregon State team that the Wildcats walked off in the Pac-12 tourney.

May is the fifth player (among 13 from Arizona to go into the portal) to find a home, the second to go to a Pac-12 school. Righty Mason Kelley, a freshman who left the program last fall, is headed to Utah for 2024.

Lawn finds next stop of long coaching journey

When Dave Lawn announced early last month he was leaving Arizona, following eight seasons, he made sure to let everyone know it wasn’t the end of his coaching career. And it turns out he’ll be joining a program that he very recently had to deal with.

Lawn is joining TCU’s staff as its third assistant coach for what will be his 38^th season as a coach, either in college or the prep level. He was with Arizona from 2016-23, coming over from Nevada with Jay Johnson and then sticking around to help Chip Hale with the regime change two years ago.

Lawn was pitching coach for the UA team that reached the College World Series in 2016, but after the 2019 campaign he was reassigned to a defensive coordinator role when Johnson brought in Nate Yeskie to coach the pitching staff. Hale reinstalled Lawn as pitching coach when he took over, but this past the Wildcats had a 5.97 ERA and allowed their most hits since 1996 and most earned runs since 2000.