Experienced players are always valuable in sports, but ASU baseball has a limited number of that commodity on its roster. Entering the 2017 season, the Sun Devils will only have four seniors.
Of those four, two are transfers that have previously played elsewhere and two are seniors who are entering their fourth season at ASU.
Catcher Zach Cerbo and pitcher Eder Erives are the only seniors remaining from the 2014 team. They are also the only players that have a longer tenure than head coach Tracy Smith, who joined ASU in 2015.
Erives, who is in line to earn a spot in the starting rotation, said he understands his role as one of the few seniors.
"It means that I can guide the younger guys," Erives said on Friday. "I would like to come out of this showing the young guys how this culture works. Teaching them the right ways, the Sun Devil ways. Not only on the field but off the field."
Erives will be a fixture on and off the baseball diamond this season. He knows his importance as a senior leader, but he's also an impressive pitcher. In 2016, he posted a 6-2 record with a 2.95 ERA and was second on the team with 73 strikeouts.
While Erives has been with the program his entire college baseball career, senior Sebastian Zawada is just starting his second season as a Sun Devil. Zawada played at South Mountain Community College before coming to ASU.
Zawada was finding his way with the team last year but still managed to adapt to his new teammates.
"Last year the older guys really helped me out with that and they showed me the ropes, and I think I came in this year ready to go and ready to help everybody else," Zawada said.
Redshirt senior transfer Jackson Willeford rounds out the four seniors on ASU's roster.
Switching it up with redshirt senior transfer @jwilleford17! (Don’t worry, Jackson, we won’t hold your fact against you). #DarkSideToLight pic.twitter.com/VYMzowgGw1
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) January 17, 2017
It's not just the players who understand the importance of internal influence. Head coach Tracy Smith knows that there has to be leadership among the players, because his authority as a coach only goes so far.
"You want to have leadership within your team," Smith said. "It's my job as a coach to lead every day and model and set the tone, but if we're going to be successful, there has to be locker room leadership. We're not going to see everything, nor do I want to see everything. I think for us to be successful those guys are going to have to hold each other accountable above and beyond what we're doing."
Smith has been coaching baseball since the early 1990s, so he's seen first hand how leadership can impact a team. He said he knows he can't see everything and wants his players to take on some of the responsibility.
"We're with them two, three, four hours a day maximum and there's a lot of other time they're together as a team and that's where you see if your leadership either pays off or is detrimental," Smith said. "I think for the most part it's been pretty darn good."
Reach the reporter at mpharri7@asu.edu or follow @Harris_Mark7 on Twitter.
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