ASU baseball coach Pat Murphy has never liked managing his team by a rulebook.
Conventional wisdom might tell Murphy to do something in a certain situation. He's just as likely to do something completely different.
But you can't argue with the results.
In 20-plus seasons as a head coach, Murphy has totaled 795 wins, more than half of which have come since he replaced the late Jim Brock in 1995. This year has been no different.
Murphy opened the season by throwing 16 newcomers into one of the nation's toughest non-conference schedules. Predictably, his players struggled early, but gained enough experience to produce results.
The No. 24 Sun Devils dropped the opener in their first Pac-10 series against then-No. 23 USC before bouncing back by winning the next two games, including the finale in extra innings.
"Playing the tough schedule early was what probably won that game for us," ASU senior catcher Tuffy Gosewisch said.
Almost as atypical as Murphy's scheduling is his use of players.
Sophomore Seth Dhaenens struggled early in the season, batting .071 through the first 21 games. Murphy benched Dhaenens, and then gave him another chance. Dhaenens now ranks fourth on the team with a .340 batting average.
In the opener against USC, Murphy called on junior left-hander Erik Averill in relief of injured starter Zechry Zinicola. The strange part was that Averill was supposed to start the next day.
"That's the biggest thing you learn here -- when you think you're not going to get to pitch or hit, that's when it will happen," Averill said. "You always have to be ready for changes."
Murphy's penchant for using players in unusual situations causes them to stay tuned into games and be mentally and physically prepared. The fact that Averill didn't make a fuss over pitching a day earlier shows he has bought into Murphy's system.
"That's probably one of the only kids you could go to at that point," Murphy said. "He has that type of mindset where he's willing to help out and do whatever he can for the team."
The USC game marked Averill's first relief appearance of the season. All of ASU's other starters also have pitched out of the bullpen. In fact, Murphy still chooses his pitchers just a day or two before the start of a series.
Averill has been the team's most consistent pitcher, but he won't be named a starter for this weekend's three-game series at California until Murphy evaluates the Golden Bears to see how his pitchers match up.
"It's pretty common in our program because we want to do what's best for the pitcher and what's best for the team," Murphy said. "We've used the same six guys over and over, but it's when we pitch them. Sometimes our kids aren't ready to pitch, so we make changes."
Reach the reporter at kyle.odegard@asu.edu.
