TUCSON, Ariz. -- The sirens escorting the University of Arizona baseball team to the McKale Center on Tuesday afternoon could be heard blocks away. The national champions were on the way.
Inside the building excitement grew as the band played and an estimated 5,000 fans clad in red awaited the return of their team from the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. The team, which made the drive over to McKale after a stop at Hi Corbett Field, had no idea what awaited them.
"It means the world to us to see the city of Tucson come out to support us and give us love," junior outfielder Robert Refsnyder told the raucous crowd. "This championship belongs to us as much to us as it does to you."
The welcome awaiting the Wildcats in Tucson following their CWS victory over South Carolina on Monday night sealed the deal: UA baseball had captured the heart of the city.
In a place where fans are more used to celebrating basketball and softball, 34 cleated men and their now two-time national champion coach are the center of attention after an improbable postseason run brought to Tucson the school's first baseball title since 1986.
The team perhaps should have expected the reception after record attendance in its first season off campus at Hi Corbett Field and a perfect 10-0 run in Omaha. Still, the players stood wide-eyed in front of the adoring crowd. Even coach Andy Lopez didn’t see it coming.
"Caught me completely off guard," Lopez said. "I told my wife there would be probably 1,000 people sitting there. … I almost tripped coming down the stairs."
The crowd roared loudest when the newly crowned national champions entered through the stands hoisting their trophy high. The players, wearing shirts that read "Wildcats Own Omaha," could barely believe what they were seeing.
"I didn't expect it to be this many people coming up and supporting us like this," junior shortstop and Pac-12 Player of the Year Alex Mejia said. "It was definitely great to see the fans and community come out. This is really for the fans, this championship. It's always said, but we really mean it."
Addressing the crowd from a podium, Tucson mayor Jonathan Rothschild proclaimed, "Tucson has always been a college baseball town." Some might disagree with that assertion, or at least argue it has been a college baseball town in a deep slumber. The 2012 Wildcats appear to have awoken it.
Everyone from Lopez to athletic director Greg Byrne to University President Eugene Sander pointed to the move to Hi Corbett as the crucial development to the revitalization of UA baseball, but it was a share of the Pac-12 Championship and a run to the national championship that has completed the process. Rothschild promised the road into Hi Corbett will soon be renamed "Championship Way."
Jerry Kindall, who coached the team to its first three national championships, was on hand for the celebration along with his former assistants Jim Wing and Jerry Stitt. UA football coach Rich Rodriguez made an appearance to congratulate the team and promise he'd try to match Lopez's accomplishment.
After the celebration was over -- though fans lingered to get autographs -- Heyer, who also brought down the house with a spot-on impression of Byrne, recalled the last 16 hours or so. The celebration in Omaha, numerous phone calls to friends and family, a little bit of sleep and finally a charter flight home Tuesday morning.
"Man, I'm floating on air right now," Heyer said. "That was probably the nicest plane ride ever, even though we didn't get food or anything or drinks. It was still nice. I'm just really happy."
As much as the championship means to the players and a community hungry for a winner, it has to mean the most to Lopez, who three years ago wasn't sure he'd continue coaching after a trying 2009 season. He arrived in 2002 with UA baseball at perhaps its lowest and has now guided it back to the top.
"It's a tremendous accomplishment, a tremendous sense of satisfaction," Lopez said. "I told my club, I said, 'Fellas, everybody in college baseball is going to end with a loss except one.' This year it's Arizona, so that's pretty sweet."
