Junior pitcher Ryan Kellogg fires from the mound during Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage on Feb. 7, 2015, at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. (J. Bauer-Leffler/ The State Press)Regardless of where it comes from, ASU baseball is displaying a heavy, but healthy dose of confidence heading into the first game of the Tracy Smith era.
ASU's confidence could come from its coach, Tracy Smith, who labeled himself as a confident leader. Smith said he looks to distinguish the quality between those who feign it and those who actually possess it.
"I look for the ones that I can look in the eye and believe what they're selling, and what we try to do as a coaching staff is model the behavior we expect out of our guys," he said. "I think they are going to take on the personality of their leader."
He also said the confidence level will boil over to the team's on-field performance.
"If we are going to make a mistake, it's going to be of an aggressive nature and not because we're playing scared," Smith said.
Junior pitcher Ryan Kellogg said much of the team's certainty is innate, but Smith has tried to keep instilling it in the players.
"I think a lot of it is natural, but he's a confident guy, and he's not going to back down from any challenge," he said.
Another junior pitcher, Ryan Burr, said the team is focused on itself more than its opponents heading into the opener, noting the series against Oklahoma State and TCU on the first two weekends of the season.
He said playing two of the country's top teams to start the year will give ASU a good gauge to where it's at and what it needs to improve on to compete with other top teams as the year progresses.
"There's not a better or tougher schedule in the country than ours in my opinion, and we're going to come out and see what we're made of these first two weekends," he said. "We're not scared of anybody.We're playing the Diamondbacks this year and while that will be fun; we're not scared."
He also said part of ASU baseball's assurance in itself comes from its close bond as a team, which could be because the upperclassmen leaders who have been together since they were freshmen.
"It's baseball, and we're not scared of who we play," Burr said. "We're just going to play our game and play for each other, which is something that I think everyone will see out of us this year."
Junior second baseman and reliever Jordan Aboites said Smith's sense of urgency and expectations of perfection have created a different feel to this season.
"Obviously no one is perfect, but we definitely strive to be," he said. "We do the best we can for him and ourselves. The biggest difference is the way we practice and prepare has been really fast-paced and he has encouraged us to want to be out on the field even on our days off."
He said Smith's encouragement has gone a long way in developing the mindset of the team in his first year as head coach.
"You want to have a team that can do stuff on its own," Aboites said. "We've really taken it upon ourselves to want to win and want to get better.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or on Twitter @justintoscano3.
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