The No. 4 ASU baseball team has lost five of eight games, surrendered its Pac-10 lead and suddenly does not look so invincible.
After another exhausting series, Sun Devil players remain optimistic, perhaps because the program is engulfed by a confidence third baseman Brett Wallace and first baseman and pitcher Ike Davis helped create.
Even with a trip to visit No. 19 Cal State Fullerton (23-13) on Tuesday and Wednesday in his immediate future, Wallace said Sunday that his team was given a "reality check."
"The best thing that could happen to us is getting knocked down a couple of times," he said. "It was good for us to scuffle a little bit. We learned a lot about ourselves."
After starting the season 28-1, ASU (31-6, 7-5 Pac-10) has recently failed to outpitch opponents and do the small things to win games. But during the three-year careers of Wallace and Davis, the program has come to expect big things from its junior duo and the team as a whole.
Coach Pat Murphy, sitting to the side of Wallace and Davis on Sunday, won't hesitate to agree.
"Why do we have to be so perfect?" Murphy said. "That's got to put a lot of pressure on them.
"How many times do juniors not do it? What can you say about these guys? They dominate when they have to."
Without provocation, catcher Petey Paramore, also a junior, is called the rock, Wallace and Davis the centerpieces.
All likely top picks when MLB's amateur draft occurs in June, the three players have been constants on a team undergoing an identity crisis.
When pitching went empty, Davis became the shut-down reliever ASU desperately needed, going 4-0 in 12 appearances with a 2.33 ERA. When he was unable to close out Friday's 6-4 loss to Oregon State because of a hamstring pull, his teammates paid the price.
"Whether he's sore or beat up, he's the MVP of the year in college baseball," Murphy said. "And [Wallace] is around that at the same time."
Davis or Wallace leads the Pac-10 in batting average, slugging percentage, runs, hits, RBIs, doubles and a host of other categories.
Murphy calls this week's two-game set with the Big West Conference's CSF a "great opportunity," while his two sluggers are just thinking see ball, hit ball.
Three years running, they have been hoisting their bats high, the program's expectations even higher.
Reach the reporter at: apentis@asu.edu.
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