Getting swept by your biggest rival is never how you want to end the last home series of the season, but for Arizona State baseball (23-29, 8-19 Pac-12) and head coach Tracy Smith, that's what happened.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, it wasn't all that shocking.
ASU is suffering through its first losing season since 1985 and its first season without eclipsing 30 wins since 1962. In a year with abrupt roster changes to accompany the poor play, it would be easy to question the forward trajectory of the program. Smith doesn't seem to have that mindset.
"Nothing stays the same. You either get better or you get worse, we're not going to get worse," Smith said after Saturday's loss. "I feel very, very confident with what we are doing and where we're going."
"But to sit here and say, 'Is the program going in the tank?' Quite the contrary," Smith said.
For a program and a fan base that's accustomed to success, this season has been an unpleasant experience. Smith said he knew it was coming.
"I know it sounds bad, but I kind of expected it this year. Not that we wanted it, but when you're looking at rosters and where you want to be, we're dealing with it," Smith said.
And it makes sense why it didn't pan out this year. Since Smith arrived in 2015, some of the program's best players have been siphoned away to the MLB Draft, meaning there are less experienced players on the team. By the end of the season, only two seniors remained on the roster.
With less experience the team had to turn to freshmen like position players Lyle Lin, Hunter Bishop and Carter Aldrete, and pitchers Chaz Montoya and Spencer Van Scoyoc, to name a few. All were talented, but talent alone wasn't enough to boost the team's record.
This isn't Smith's first rodeo. He's coached at Miami of Ohio and Indiana University, leading both schools to the NCAA Tournament, and reaching the College World Series with Indiana in 2013.
Smith isn't too worried about losing his job after a down year.
"As long as my athletic director knows exactly what's going on and the president of the university, those are the ones that I have to worry about, and they've been lockstep with me on all this," Smith said. "In fact, we laid this thing out two years ago."
In fairness, this Arizona Wildcat baseball team would be tough matchup for any college baseball team.after all, the Wildcats made it to the College World Series Final in 2016.
This year No. 15 Arizona boasts a 36-17 record (15-12 Pac-12), with excellent players like sophomore left fielder Alfonso Rivas, who's batting .382 with six home runs. Then there's junior first baseman JJ Matijevic who leads the Wildcats with ten home runs, 86 hits, and 61 RBI as of Saturday.
To put it simply, he's an offensive machine and it's no surprise he has a top ten batting average in all of college baseball at .400. He also leads all of college baseball with 27 doubles.
JJ climbing the doubles list with some pretty heady company. #MLBTrainingGround pic.twitter.com/w8t0TodEe9
— Arizona Baseball (@ArizonaBaseball) May 21, 2017
Arizona is far and away the better team, but getting swept by the Wildcats at home for the first time since 1989 surely can't feel great for ASU.
But even after an disappointing season, Smith stayed on the same theme.
"And I feel and know that we are moving in the right direction," Smith said. "Tough year, tough to swallow, but I think it'll be different. I know it'll be different."
Reach the reporter at mpharri7@asu.edu or follow @Harris_Mark7 on Twitter.
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