Josh Fields/Arizona Daily Wildcat Former Arizona baseball coach Jerry Kindall talks with former Wildcat center fielder Chris Frey during the Arizona Baseball Alumni Game yesterday at Sancet Stadium. Two of Kindall's three championship teams, the 1976 and 1986 College World Series Champions, were honored at the game in the anniversary years of their victories.

A pitcher hitting a home run, a Tomey sighting in Tucson and a 44-year-old lefty starting on the mound were just part of another day at the ballpark as the Arizona baseball team fell 4-3 in the team's annual Jim Click Alumni Game at Sancet Stadium yesterday afternoon.

After an autograph session was held on the field, action got underway with the home run derby as sophomore pitcher and the game's starting designated hitter Eric Berger was the only current Arizona player to hit a home run in the contest.

Former Wildcats Trevor Crowe, Shelly Duncan and Jordan Brown combined to hit seven home runs for the alumni.

Former Wildcat Eric Vosberg, who played at Arizona from 1980 to 1983, took the mound and picked off sophomore third baseman Colt Sedbrook and Berger to begin the game. Vosberg is one of only two players to have appeared in the Little League World Series, College World Series, and Major League Baseball World Series.

Rich Tomey, who was part of the 1994 Wildcat team and son of former Arizona head football coach Dick Tomey, pitched a scoreless fifth inning for the alumni.

Kevin Guyette, a 10-game winner last year, stole second base and scored a run as a pinch runner in the fourth inning.

Dick Griesser, an all-American outfielder in 1958, was back on campus with some of his former teammates. Now in his 70s, Greisser had an at-bat in the bottom of the fifth inning, grounding out to shortstop and hobbling over to first before being thrown out.

The alumni were managed by former Arizona head coach Jerry Kindall, who brought College World Series championships to Tucson with his 1976, 1980 and 1986 teams.

"For (former pitching) coach (Jim) Wing and myself, it's the highlight of the year for us baseball-wise because each year there will be some coming back that we haven't seen for a long time," he said.

Kindall said he believes that current Arizona head coach Andy Lopez has been on the road to rebuilding the program and putting it back on the national radar.

"I knew when he played shortstop at UCLA that he was an outstanding person," Kindall said. "He's very upright. He's (a) very steadfast and moral kind of guy, and he could really recruit, so it wasn't going to take long until he does here what he did at Pepperdine and what he did at Florida - establish a nationally ranked team. He's done that already and he's well on his way on doing that again."

Kindall added that over time Arizona has developed a reputation for being an elite program and maintained that status even in years when the team was less successful.

"The eliteness happened years ago," he said. "People still regarded it as an 'elite' program but we fell on hard time the last three years that I coached, and we didn't win many games.

"In the interim, since that elite status was a reality, there's been some dry times, which is going to happen virtually in every program," Kindall said, referring to the Wildcats' 18-year drought without an appearance in the College World Series, which was snapped in 2004. "Andy has come in and he's pumped new life into the program."

Lopez said his experience in turning around teams at Cal State Dominguez, Pepperdine and Florida helped him bring the Arizona program back to being a nationally respected baseball team.

"We recruited good people that came to a place that maybe wasn't going real good, and we talked about creating a vision of getting it back to national prominence, and they've done that," Lopez said. "I've never kind of walked into a program that's going in very good condition. It really comes down to getting good players and having a real solid plan and then really implementing that plan."

Chris Frey, who played under Lopez last season and was an 11th-round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies in June's Major League Baseball draft, said he credits Lopez's skill to effectively manage a team as one of the reasons for the team's recent success.

"His coaching abilities are unbelievable," Frey said. "I've never met a guy like him."

Current Arizona second baseman Brad Boyer, a member of Lopez's first recruiting class along with Frey, said Lopez has turned the program around fast.

"As soon as he got here, he brought in a great group of young players and two years later, we're going to the College World Series," Boyer said. "It's how he gets his guys ready, his preparation on and off the field and how he teaches his guys what it's going to take to get to that next level."