Rewind the clock to Feb. 25 when the ASU baseball team was set to face off against then-No. 8 Baylor.
The Sun Devils were 6-9 and had dropped out of the national rankings for the first time since 2000.
Junior right fielder Travis Buck, a unanimous preseason All-American, was batting .246. Some wondered if Buck would suffer the same slump as senior first baseman Jeff Larish, who exploded onto the national scene his sophomore year but struggled as a junior when dealing with the pressure of being the team's star.
Fans thought the pressure was eating at Buck. To a certain extent, it had.
"I came in trying to do too much," Buck said. "I really had unbelievable pressure on me -- everybody just saying everything."
Buck admitted he tried to carry the team himself. He started taking ASU's early-season losses personally.
"Those first couple weeks, I just tried to do way too much," Buck said. "I had too much on my plate, and it showed. But I finally just got relaxed and let the game come to me."
Buck's fortunes -- and ASU's -- turned around in the Baylor series. Trailing 3-1 in the seventh inning of the opener, Buck blasted a grand slam to lift ASU to a 5-3 win.
In a local newspaper the next day, there was a picture of Buck yelling in exaltation with his fists thrust in the air. Buck said it was his way of letting out 15 games worth of frustration.
The victory was a sign of things to come. ASU has gone 22-6 since the start of the Baylor series.
Buck also has continued to excel. He has batted .454 his last 28 games. Much of his success has come because of his renewed confidence in his teammates.
"Once the games started rolling and I saw that these guys could play, I was like, 'All right, I don't need to be doing that. I just need to be playing my game,' " Buck said.
Buck's numbers are the type that make scouts drool.
He's batting .387 with 17 doubles, three triples and 15 stolen bases. That's part of the reason Buck figures to be a high pick in this summer's Major League Baseball amateur draft.
Buck insists he's not thinking about anything but trying to help ASU finish the season strong. Then there's the postseason.
"I want to play until the end of June with these guys," Buck said. "Everyone knows how unexpected the draft goes. The only thing I'm concentrating on now is winning the Pac-10 title and moving into the playoffs."
Reach the reporter at kyle.odegard@asu.edu.