Even though Sun Devil baseball has completed the pre-conference portion of its schedule, head coach Tracy Smith still hasn’t solidified everyone’s daily role.
The Sun Devils (9-7) ride a three-game winning streak into its Pac-12 opener against Oregon State on Thursday after sweeping Long Beach State over the weekend. However, with the way the season has gone so far, there’s a lot that hasn’t been solidified for ASU.
“I told Skip, wherever he needs me, I’ll play,” senior infielder Jackson Willeford said. “If I need to catch or play first, I’ll do anything for the team. We practice enough to where we’re all prepared to go into any situation. (Senior catcher Zach Cerbo) was at second last night, just because we needed him.”
Willeford, who missed the beginning of the season with a hamstring injury, is back in the lineup and playing third base. But at the beginning of the season, third base belonged to junior Andrew Snow, who played second base last season.
Snow’s seven errors this season have prompted Smith to change things up.
“We were losing baseball games because we weren’t pitching the ball very effectively and we weren’t playing good defense on top of that,” Smith said. “You can draw your own conclusions. We’ve tried him at multiple positions. I’ve told him we want him in the lineup.”
Snow is sitting on the bench, despite hitting .324 with two doubles this season. Even Smith has praised him for his bat — but said he has to play better defensively,
Even though Smith could opt to put Snow in at designated hitter — thus solving the offense versus defense conundrum — he says that other hitters, like freshman Hunter Bishop, have made the DH an area of competition.
Bishop, an outfielder when he plays positionally, is hitting .381 with a home run and five RBIs.
.@HunterBishop9 gettin' some TV time pic.twitter.com/22ifcv87Cq
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) March 13, 2017
But that’s all without mentioning the positions of catcher and first base, which have both been shaken up as the season has gone on. At the beginning of the season, junior Taylor Lane was slated to be the starter at first base. But as freshman catcher Lyle Lin has caught fire, hitting .375, Smith has often put Lin at first base.
That’s opened up a competition at catcher between senior Zach Cerbo and freshman Sam Ferri. As of late, Cerbo is winning that battle.
“He’s earned it,” Smith said of Cerbo. “We’ve got, in my mind, three quality Division I catchers. It’s fun, and I think competition brings out the best in people. If you take what he’s doing physically, and you add that emotional component with it, and the maturity and the handling of the pitchers, that’s a plus.”
When those catchers are behind the plate, they’ve caught a cavalcade of Sun Devil relievers out of the bullpen. Though freshman Chaz Montoya and senior Eder Erives were considered the late-inning arms at the season’s start, junior Jake Godfrey closed against Long Beach State on Saturday.
“I liked the fact that (Godfrey) was on the back end today because of the breaking ball — he’s got a pretty good breaking ball with a good fastball,” Smith said.
But perhaps all the shake-ups don’t matter, as long as the team wins and the players are okay with it. When asked how he deals with sitting and waiting to see when he’ll be used, Godfrey answered simply: he doesn’t.
“I usually don’t sit, I just pace,” Godfrey said, laughing. “I’m always walking around, ready whenever he wants. I always tell (Smith), jokingly, ‘Yeah, whenever you need me. Let’s go.’”
Anybody have a Sun Devil pitchfork out there the boys can borrow so we don't have to use Paul Bunyan's dinner utensil? pic.twitter.com/fAa8s2A4bk
— Tracy Smith (@ASUSkip) March 13, 2017
Reach the reporter at matthew.layman@asu.edu or follow @Mattjlayman on Twitter.
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