Sun Devils learn to ‘Make the Call’

(Photo: ASU Athletics)

Conquer the day. Take every game one pitch at a time. Slow the game down. Understand the process.

For the Arizona State Sun Devils softball team, these are more than just phrases. They are pieces of a psychological blueprint designed to help mentally guide the Sun Devils through a long season filled with success, failure, and everything in between.

The system was introduced by Brian Cain, a noted sports psychologist who has worked with other college programs, in various sports, including the 2012 Women’s College World Series champion Alabama Crimson Tide. The Sun Devils are hoping that working with Cain will help them get back to the WCWS and make up for last season’s early elimination with a championship.

“The biggest piece of [bringing in Cain] was just to address, or to get [the players] to think about, there’s a lot more to this game than what you physically can do,” first year head coach Craig Nicholson said. Nicholson spoke about the players needing a routine and being able to focus on the moment while throwing out all the bad that happens in a game.

“It’s a tough game to play when success, for a hitter, is getting out more than you get a hit. So just helping them get in a spot where they deal with failure a little bit better,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson later said the team is still in the early stages of of understanding the process and getting to where they want to be but believes the players are buying into the system. Nicholson and his players mentioned to the series against Stanford, in which the Sun Devils had to come back late in two games after giving up big innings to the Cardinal.

“Our last game we played [against Stanford], we’re down 5-0 in the sixth inning and that mental conditioning kind of brings us back to reality,” center fielder Alix Johnson said. “To slow down. To calm down. It’s one pitch, one at-bat at a time. We don’t need huge home runs or a grand slam to put us back in the game. One single after the other can help us win the game. That’s process.”

Earlier this season, the Sun Devils introduced the Make the Call T-shirt which is awarded to a player after every game similar to the game ball in football. However, unlike the game ball, the Make The Call T-shirt is about much more than wins, losses or statistics.

The concept was inspired by the movie “Lone Survivor,” which Cain had the team watch. In the movie, based on real events, a Navy SEAL team is ambushed during Operation Redwings in Afghanistan. The team leader, Lt. Mike Murphy, sacrifices his own life when he leaves the team’s covered position, exposing himself to enemy fire, to call for support. Murphy received several awards including the Medal of Honor for his actions.

“Obviously we’re not a Navy SEAL team but just the idea of sacrificing for your teammates and making the call when you have success. Putting ‘we’ over ‘me,’” said right fielder Bailey Wigness, who was the first recipient of the Make the Call T-shirt for her performance in a win against Oregon State. Players who have been awarded the T-shirt also include Johnson, shortstop Cheyenne Coyle and both starting pitchers, Dallas Escobedo and Mackenzie Popescue.

“It doesn’t even have to be someone who wins the game or someone who has the most hits,” Coyle said. “It’s someone who really made the call or did something good for their teammates. It could be something little that they did that made a big difference.”

Although sacrificing for the good of the team is nothing new in sports, the Sun Devils have rallied around the idea of Make the Call. When players get hits or score they can be seen calling to the dugout, their way of saying, “That’s for you guys, not me,” according to Coyle.

Nicholson described it as, “something to buy into. Something to kind of cling to when things get tough. You’re never out of the fight. Again, I think our players have gotten to a point where they believe in that idea.”

The Sun Devils have proven they are never out of the fight with four walk-off wins in March and their five losses being by three runs or fewer. In many of those losses they had a chance to tie or win the game in the final inning. Although the outcomes may not have been what the Sun Devils wanted, as Nicholson said, the team is learning to focus on the process over the results.

Thanks to their work with Cain, the Sun Devils appear ready for whatever happens in a game filled with failure, sometimes ruled by luck and described by Yogi Berra as being, “90 percent half mental.”

Conquer the day. Take every game one pitch at a time. Slow the game down. Make the call.

It’s all a part of the process.

You can reach Matt Harden on Twitter @MattHarden_.