(Photo: Karli Matthias/WCSN)
14 games ago, a 10-1 win over Notre Dame was relegated to ‘just game one’.
12 games ago, 46 runs and three games into the season, the response to the early success was simply ‘it’s way too soon to tell’.
But, 15 games and 15 wins into the 2019 season, the Arizona State University baseball team is far from ‘too soon’ or ‘just one game in’. They are an offensive juggernaut, a small but mighty bullpen, and a roster of players that are ready, able and willing to do whatever it takes to seal a win, and they’re doing it all just one game at a time.
“We have this thing, it’s always about where your feet are,” catcher Sam Ferri said after Saturday nights win. “So every day when we step in the locker room it’s, ‘Where are our feet today?’ We don’t look forward, we don’t look backward. I think that’s why we’ve been playing good baseball, for the most part. We’re just trying to be the best person that we can today and play where our feet are.”
It’s a ‘one game a day’ mentality. When ASU took the field on Sunday to finish its three-game set against Xavier, the 20 combined runs scored and the three total runs surrendered in the previous two games of the series were more or less meaningless. They were in the past.
In game two, Erik Tolman took the mound in relief of Alec Marsh and threw 3 perfect innings. In game three of the series, he was a perfect three for three at the plate. One day a pitcher, the next a batter but both treated as equally important tasks.
It is a logic that runs widespread through the team. When the going gets rough, something head coach Tracy Smith says “will happen eventually”, the ability to forget and play on will be crucial. But, in their winning ways it may be just as important.
“Winning is great but we never want to get ahead of ourselves,” Spencer Torkelson said on Saturday. “We never want to be here (point to the ceiling), here (pointing to the floor) but always right here, in the middle, even.”
The rinse and repeat strategy, in effect once again on Sunday, bought ASU another win and moved them to fourth on the all-time list of hottest starts in Sun Devil Baseball history. This win, eventually to be forgotten in the light of tomorrow, was by a score of 11-6 over Xavier.
In the win, the pitching was near flawless outside of one frame. RJ Dabovich got the start, staying in the game for 6.1 innings while surrendering only one earned run.
“I’ve taken this game one at-bat, one inning, one pitch at a time,” Dabovich said.
Dominance in its most supreme fashion to start the season for ASU has quickly silenced people Smith pegs as the “nay-sayers”. But, dominance to the players has simply been a feat of working together and knowing simply how good they are and how good they should be.
“We knew coming into this year how much talent this roster has,” Hunter Bishop said. “Would I say I’m surprised by 15-0, I mean yes because 15-0 anywhere is impressive but we knew.”
It has been Smith’s perfect blend, the ideal cocktail for winning baseball games. It is a blend made partly with the ideology of winning or losing and subsequently forgetting, partly with confidence in his players and their confidence in each other and partly in each player knowing their role and performing in it.
“What is your role,” Smith asked a reporter. “When you know that role, don’t you perform better in it? That’s what we have here. Guys who want to exceed their role because they know what it is.”
That has translated to the field and into the batter’s box. A home run from Bishop in the three-hole, something he has done eight times this year and most recently on Sunday, is just as valuable as him scoring on a throwing error from center field. It’s a situational awareness that has allowed each game to be simplified, pure and to this point, won.
For Smith, the wins can continue to come but so can losses. Either way, results will never blur the line in which the Sun Devils feet stand. They are standing in the now. Now, they are dominating.
ASU stays at home for their midweek game this week as they host the New Mexico State Aggies on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m..
