OMAHA, Neb. — As ASU baseball coach Tim Esmay walked out of the Hall of Fame media room at Rosenblatt Stadium following his team's 11-4 loss to South Carolina on Tuesday, one that eliminated the Sun Devils from the College World Series, he was greeted with a hug from his boss, athletic director Lisa Love.
“I'm sorry,” a despondent Esmay said.
Love was having none of it.
“Don't say sorry,” she quickly responded. “You have nothing to be sorry about. You've given these kids a gift.”
On the heels of a tumultuous separation between the school and longtime coach Pat Murphy last winter, Esmay's gift, according to Love, was in the way he brought calm to the clubhouse, making players aware that he understood the rich ASU baseball tradition and what it takes to play here.
The players responded immediately to their new skipper, rallying off 24 straight wins to open the season, a school record, while keeping their attention turned to what was happening on the field.
“It could have been a circumstance where maybe the atmosphere could have ripe for distraction,” Love said after lifting Esmay's interim label and naming him permanent head coach earlier this month. “What didn't become the headline, I think, is as telling in the quality of [his] leadership.”
Esmay's familiarity with the high expectations that surround one of college baseball's most storied programs began as an undersized and unheralded player for legendary ASU coach Jim Brock in the late '80s, whose staff he later joined as an assistant coach. In all, Esmay spent 11 years as a player or assistant coach at ASU before taking what he's called his “dream job” as the head coach in Tempe last December.
For his part, Esmay said his first season leading the Sun Devils was the most rewarding he's had in his coaching career.
"I'm just very proud and very blessed that they gave me this opportunity to coach them this year, because this is a heck of a team," Esmay said following ASU's elimination from the CWS. "And having to deal with expectations, and expectations of Arizona State is to play deep in this tournament. And they know that. They battled that day in, day out, and they answered the bell all year long."
Esmay credited the leadership of the upperclassmen on the roster with helping him make the transition into his new post a seamless one, a group whose success — which included a Pac-10 record four straight conference championships — equaled any ASU has had since winning a national title in 1981.
"They allowed this place to continue to what those expectations are," Esmay said. "I'm very thankful that they were a big part of this thing. I told them after the game, they'll be Sun Devils for life."
Just like their coach.
Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu
