Freshman pitcher Ryan Burr winds up for a pitch during the Sun Devils' 6-6 tie with Gonzaga at Surprise Stadium on March 3. ASU continues its non-conference play with a three-game series against Long Beach State beginning Friday. (Photo by Hector Almeida)Usually, a team doesn’t have to regroup after an undefeated weekend that included two victories over then-No. 2 Arkansas, but that isn’t the case for the No. 19 ASU baseball team.
Its last game on Sunday versus Gonzaga ended in a tie, the Sun Devils’ (7-2-1) first since 2001. The Sun Devils also blew a four-run lead in the eighth.
Fast forward to this week, and head coach Tim Esmay says his team has recovered from Sunday’s disappointment and it has prepared for a home matchup against Long Beach State.
“It’s just part of the mantra,” Esmay said. “You can never get it back, and you have to move forward in this game.”
What Esmay doesn’t look past are the performances his starting pitchers had last weekend.
Freshmen Brett Lilek and Ryan Kellogg, sophomore Adam McCreery and junior Trevor Williams combined for 25 innings and allowed only four earned runs.
The success of the starting rotation is something Esmay is grateful to have.
“Competition is what makes this place,” Esmay said. “We need to see who can handle the competition, and a lot of times, the most competition is from their own clubhouse.”
McCreery also enjoys the competition and calls the Sun Devil pitching staff one of the best staffs in the country.
“It definitely puts pressure on you to get your job done,” McCreery said. “But it also kind of fired me up to see everyone else do good and I wanted to join in.”
Esmay said he plans to start Williams on Friday, Kellogg on Saturday and McCreery on Sunday.
“I think that’s kind of where we are leaning right now,” Esmay said.
On the hitting side, the lineup looks to be cemented, but Esmay said that is not the case.
“To be honest, the lineup isn’t as set as you’d think it is,” Esmay said. “With this type of team, it’s more about what the weekend presents.”
This weekend presents the Dirtbags (6-7), who are coming off a mid-week 3-2 loss to No. 12 UCLA.
Esmay said the Dirtbags will play a familiar style but will be no easy opponent.
“They are going to play a lot more like the Pac-12 does, which is nice,” Esmay said. “They play more of that West Coast baseball. They are going to scrap and claw and have good pitching, and it’s going to be tough to run away from them.”
McCreery looked back to last season’s series to dissect the Dirtbags.
“They are definitely a good team,” McCreery said. “They could have easily won two out of three against us last year. They have some good bats and definitely have some good pitching. I definitely think it’s going to be the best opponent we’ve faced in a weekend series.”
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
