It’s been a two-part season for the Arizona State Sun Devils (37-17, 16-13 Pac-12), who secured their spot in the NCAA Regionals Monday morning for the first time since 2016.
Part one was enormously successful, spanning the opening months of February and March, as the team went 25-1 which made them the last one-loss team in the country at the time and put ASU back on the national map.
However, none of those first 26 games came against teams that would make the 64-team NCAA tournament field.
That’s a big part of what changed in part two of the season, which saw the Sun Devils plateau with the start of April and into May. The quick math shows ASU went 12-16 over these final two months, which saw them play a series against five schools that would eventually make the tournament, including three that will host regionals.
But now, ASU turns the page to part three of its season- the postseason- which provides a fresh chance for the 2019 Sun Devils to leave behind a legacy that will be remembered.
“It’s a new season, we’re 0-0,” manager Tracy Smith said in reference to his clean-shaven face. “There’s a symbolic piece to this, is that hey, it’s a new season, let’s start a new streak.”
“We feel really confident; we’ve been playing pretty good baseball down the stretch. We’ve lost some tough ones just down to the swing of the bat against some of the top seeds in the country,” Smith said. “So, we know we can win playing against anybody, now it’s just putting it together at the right time.”
Although ASU has had a rough finish to the second half of their season, the team gets confidence from knowing how close they were to winning games, and series for that matter, against the likes of top-seeded teams like UCLA, Oregon State, and most recently Stanford.
“If you take out two pitches maybe in like five of the last (lost) games, we win most of those games,” sophomore first baseman Spencer Torkelson said. “Our pitchers are going to make those pitches in the postseason, I believe, so yeah we’re fine.”
ASU will have its work cut out for them in trying to get out of Baton Rouge, a place known for its fierce home crowds should the Sun Devils have to face off with the hosting LSU Tigers.
“I don’t think, crowd-wise, we’ve played in anything like this,” junior outfielder Hunter Bishop said. “My brother played there freshman year and told me it’s unlike anything you’ve seen, except for the big leagues.”
“You’ve always seen on social media how that atmosphere is when other people play there,” junior outfielder Carter Aldrete said. “We just need to keep our composure and keep our heads on straight and focus on the task at hand.”
It’d be easy to say this team lacks momentum going into the tournament given how their season played out in the last game, a 3-2 loss to Stanford in the rubber match after being one out from a victory, which is similar to some of the tough losses they’ve had over the previous few weeks that have cost ASU series victories.
But Smith believes good luck could be on ASU’s side considering the difficult, marginal and sometimes controversial nature of many of their biggest losses over the last six weeks of the season.
“I’ll take my good luck in being good now that the real stuff starts,” Smith says. “You’ve got to be good, but it’s not always the best teams that win, it’s the teams that are playing well, and oh yeah, they’re a little bit lucky too.”
“I felt like we’ve had some really really tough losses down the stretch, I mean some really tough losses, so I think all that stuff balances out over the totality of the season.”
As for the pitching decision, Smith has subtly indicated that Marsh is most likely to pitch the team’s opening game, but refused to give away anything for certain.
“It’s important to stay in the winning bracket, and it’s always that dilemma with the two and three-seed- do you get tempted to ‘throw off,’” Smith said. “I think the way that (sophomore started Boyd Vander Kooi) is throwing right now, he certainly gives you a chance to win against anybody too…but I don’t ever want to be second-guessing saying ‘why didn’t we throw our best’ and sitting in the losers’ bracket.”
Although Smith is going to evaluate his options as to who will see the mound first in the postseason, he expressed the level of confidence he has with the staff as a whole.
“We feel good about it. We feel we’ve got a couple starting pitchers that are throwing the ball well right now, our bullpen, for the most part, there’s been some dependability in that,” Smith said. “We’re going to give the ball to the guy that gives us the best chance to win- it’s not necessarily righty, lefty or any of that stuff- we’re going to give it to the guys that we trust the most.”
With everyone on the roster making their first appearance in the NCAA tournament, save for junior Cole Austin with West Virginia prior to his time at ASU, nerves could easily play a factor come next weekend.
The MLB draft begins on Monday as well, which means there will be no shortage of distractions on a team with MLB prospects in Bishop, Marsh, and Aldrete.
But Smith along with every player that spoke believes it won’t come in the way, and Smith wants to be sure his guys appreciate how special the moment is while they’re still playing at the college level.
“You want your guys to embrace and cherish and don’t take for granted this experience here,” Smith said. “Even some of the greats that we’ve brought through here, and I’m talking like Willie (Bloomquist), and (Dustin) Pedroia and those guys, they would be the first ones to tell you some of the most enjoyable time you’ll ever have playing baseball is this right here.”
“The next level becomes a job, and it becomes more cut-throat, so enjoy what you’re doing and don’t take it for granted.”
The Sun Devils begin regionals Friday morning at 10 a.m. when they take on No. 3 seeded Southern Mississippi (38-19). The game can be viewed online through ESPN3.
To read more about ASU’s postseason opponents check out our Baton Rouge Regional Primer
