Those anxious, unsure times that were planted in November have sprouted success, once again, for the ASU baseball team.
The Sun Devils defeated Stanford 8-6 on Saturday at Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto, Calif., to earn their fourth-straight Pac-10 championship.
Without a coach seven months ago when longtime skipper Pat Murphy resigned under fire, players on the team waded through several weeks of uncertainty, unsure of the path the program would take.
None of it matters now.
Guided by the steady, player-friendly approach of interim coach Tim Esmay and a group of veteran leaders, ASU becomes the first team in Pac-10 history to win four consecutive conference titles.
ASU (47-8, 20-7 Pac-10) struck early on Saturday with some unlikely power from Drew Maggi. The sophomore belted solo home runs in his first two plate appearances, his second tying the game at 2-2 in the third inning. Maggi had just two home runs all season before Saturday.
In the fourth, sophomore Riccio Torrez got into the long-ball act with a two-run shot to right field that gave ASU a 4-2 advantage. The blast extended Torrez's hit streak to 20 games.
The lead was short-lived, as the Cardinal (31-23, 14-13) got to ASU starter Jake Borup for three runs — two unearned — to take a 5-4 lead in the bottom half of the frame.
Sophomore Zack MacPhee delivered two runs in the seventh on a two-out RBI single to right field that scored Maggi and junior Xorge Carrillo to reclaim a one-run advantage.
ASU scored what turned out to be the winning run in the eighth on an RBI single from freshman Deven Marrero.
The Sun Devils were able to hold the slim lead due in large part to a stellar relief performance from freshman Brady Rodgers, who earned the win to push his record to 4-3.
The right-hander took the ball in the fifth and retired the first nine batters he faced before surrendering a lead-off single in the eighth.
Stanford loaded the bases off Rodgers and sophomore reliever Mitchell Lambson in the eighth with one out, but after allowing a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 7-6, Lambson struck out center fielder Jake Stewart to end the threat.
Riccio Torrez added his third RBI of the game with a two-out double that scored senior Kole Calhoun to give his team a two-run cushion, and sophomore Jordan Swagerty struck out Stanford's Kenny Diekroeger with runners on second and third to clinch the win.
It was Swagerty's 14th save of the season, a school record.
ASU earned a at least a share of the Pac-10 title with a 4-2 win over Stanford on Thursday, but after falling to the Cardinal 5-2 on Friday, the Sun Devils need a win in the finale or a UCLA loss in one of its last two games against Washington State to secure the conference crown outright.
Saturday's win ended a regular season that featured no back-to-back losses by ASU and only one series loss (WSU).
ASU will begin its quest for a second straight College World Series appearance this Friday when it hosts the NCAA Tempe Regional.
Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu
