UA head coach Andy Lopez, center, talks with his pitchers during a practice. Lopez skipped last year as the Wildcats' pitching coach to take care of his ailing father, who died following the season.

James S. Wood / arizona daily star

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Andy Lopez was just getting started as a 22-year-old high school coach when he received some of the best advice of his young career.

"John Scolinos, the head coach at Cal Poly Pomona, saw me one day and said, 'You want to be good at this game? You better learn pitching,'" Lopez said. "I made it a mission at that point to learn as much as I could."

Thirty years later, Lopez is hoping his experience with pitchers can get the UA baseball team back to the College World Series for the first time since 2004.

Lopez will serve as the Wildcats' pitching coach again this season after handing over the duties to assistant Andy Diver for a year. Lopez said the deteriorating health of his father, Art, made it impossible to dedicate so much time to coaching pitchers in 2006.

Art Lopez died following the season. Diver left the program in August.

"Now that I'm back with the pitchers, hopefully I won't do too much damage," Lopez joked on Wednesday. "I might not be the answer, but at least I'm accountable to them and they're accountable to me."

The Wildcats might need some accountability considering the way 2006 went. Arizona posted a Pac-10-worst ERA of 5.41 in conference play and allowed opponents to hit .299, during a 27-28 year.

And though Arizona had its share of bad luck — ace Eric Berger and Mark Melancon both missed most of the season with injuries — Lopez attributed much of the staff's struggles to lack of control. The Wildcats' pitchers walked 238 batters in conference play, a figure that was third-worst in the Pac-10.

"Last year can't happen again," said Preston Guilmet, who went 3-7 with a 4.80 ERA as a freshman in 2006. "Last year, everybody seemed a little more lax when it came to the pitching staff. This year's completely different. This year, we're not screwing around."

Arizona's new approach has a little league sensibility to it. Lopez will urge his pitchers to prepare well, throw strikes low in the zone and avoid walks. He won't tinker with anybody's mechanics or pitch selection.

"The key for them is to keep the game small and keep the game manageable," Lopez said.

"So many things can make the game big: the count, the crowd, the opponent, the umpire, the pitch you made before. … We're going to keep things very simple.

"They're talented enough to be here. Now, it's just a matter of them being mentally prepared to succeed at this level."

And when his pitchers falter, Lopez will try to keep their confidence up.

The high-scoring nature of college baseball is deflating to just about everyone who takes the mound at Kindall-Sancet Stadium. Even the best college pitchers allow roughly one hit per inning. Arizona's top starter in 2006, Brad Mills, had an ERA of 4.70.

"You never want to lower your standards," Lopez said, "but the reality of it is that you're probably going to give up more hits and more runs than you have in your lifetime simply because you are where you are."

Every once in a while, a staff will ruin the curve for the rest of the NCAA's baseball's teams. Pepperdine's 1992 team allowed just one earned run in four College World Series games on the way to an NCAA title.

That team's pitching coach? Lopez.

"Coach Lopez has a lot to offer," Guilmet said.