No. 4 ASU baseball caught a midweek break before leaving for Seattle in advance of Friday's series with 2014 Pac-12 runner-up Washington after capturing its fifth conference series win of the season over Arizona at Phoenix Muni.
The Sun Devils (23-10,11-4 Pac-12) are a much different team than the one that dropped a series to the Huskies (20-14, 6-9 Pac-12) at home and finished two games behind Washington in the conference standings in 2014.
Washington graduated the majority of its pitching depth, but it still figures to be a strength (its team ERA of 3.00 is fourth-best in the Pac-12), as is its defense, boasting a .978 fielding percentage good for second-best behind Pac-12 leading UCLA.
Right-handed freshman standout Noah Bremer has been a pleasant surprise atop the Husky rotation, garnering a .199 batting average against, the best mark of any Washington pitcher in 2015.
The Sunday spot in Washington's rotation remains a question mark for now, but the Sun Devils should anticipate seeing junior Ryan Schmitten, who lasted 3.2 innings as a starter in a 5-2 win over Washington State on Saturday.
In contrast, the mission to change the perception of ASU's program as one that prioritized slugging first and defense second under Tim Esmay has been a work in progress under head coach Tracy Smith.
Junior infielder Dalton DiNatale is now healthy and back at third base, and junior Jordan Aboites took reps in practice alongside sophomore David Greer at the hot corner.
It remains to be seen how deep Smith will carry his infield off the bench, having inserted juniors RJ Ybarra and Chris Beall to give senior Joey Bielek a break at first, expressing his concerns of a lack of consistent production out of his designated hitter spot.
However, DiNatale being back frees up Greer to be used situationally and Beall to pinch-hit if the matchups dictate.
"We're a pretty resilient team," sophomore catcher Brian Serven said. "It doesn't really matter who's at the plate; we're confident in each other that they're going to get the job done, get a big hit and score a big run. The fact that we're all really close as a team and we really trust each other, it helps."
Serven's never been to Seattle, which has often been described as a tough road trip. He emphasized that the change of environment will not affect his team away from home.
"I don't know what it's like, but I'm pretty sure we're going to go in there with the same mindset we always would," Serven said. "Just do what we know how to do best, and we'll be fine."
After a successful venture to Oregon in March, Smith wasn't buying the environment as a significant factor either.
"I'm sitting here going, 'OK, boys, we're going to change that mindset,'" Smith said. "It's a baseball field. ... I just don't like excuses. I don't care whether it's on the road or not. And that's coming from somebody that's played more than half his career on the road as a manager. I don't care where we're playing; we'll be ready to play."
Pitching matchups:
Friday
Seth Martinez (1-0, 2.84 ERA) vs. Noah Bremer (4-2, 1.80 ERA)
Saturday
Ryan Kellogg (6-1, 3.82 ERA) vs. Tyler Davis (5-3, 2.12 ERA)
Sunday
Brett Lilek (2-2, 3.83 ERA) vs. TBA
Reach the reporter at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.
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