ASU baseball head coach Tracy Smith put it simply after ASU's 4-1 win over Abilene Chrisitan Tuesday.
Take care of business.
"I'm not going to come out here and say that we 100 percent deserve it, but I would think we would be in serious discussions," Smith said Tuesday. "I think that if you discuss it enough, you could make a compelling argument that we should. If we take care of business. If we don't take care of business, it's a moot point."
ASU goes into its final regular season series against USC within shouting distance of hosting a regional and potentially clinching second place in the Pac-12.
By sweeping the Trojans, the Sun Devils would be thrust back into the immediate conversation to host. If they take two out of three, things still bode pretty well if they get the help that they need from other conference matchups.
All No. 12 ASU (33-19, 17-10 Pac-12) needs to do is "take care of business" against one of the Pac-12's top programs in No. 17 USC (35-18, 16-11 Pac-12).
"I want to be playing well," Smith said. "Taking care of business to me says we're playing good baseball. That's what's important when you roll into the postseason."
Smith said the battles of the Pac-12 have prepped the Sun Devils for the postseason.
"We are battle-tested," he said. "This conference is a great conference. We've won on the road. I just want us playing good baseball."
This is a big weekend, for freshmen and veterans alike.
Freshman second baseman Andrew Snow, the only freshman regular in the starting lineup, is prepared heading into his first postseason stretch run.
"We want to host," Snow said. "We're going to go (to USC) and we're going to come back with two wins in our belt, hopefully, a series win."
Junior left-hander Ryan Kellogg is entering his third stretch run for the Sun Devils, and he and fellow starter Brett Lilek are hitting their stride at just the right time.
Between Kellogg, Lilek, sophomore right-hander Seth Martinez and junior right-hander Jordan Aboites, the Sun Devil starting pitchers have given up just four runs while striking out 39 batters during their last 27.1 innings in their four starts this past week.
"Our guys are just focusing on keeping the ball down and getting ahead of hitters," Kellogg said. "It's a lot easier to pitch 0-1 rather than 1-0, and just more guys bought into it."
Aboites' stardom was particularly surprising, as he went 6.1 innings with a career-high 11 strikeouts in his first career start on Tuesday.
Kellogg said that Aboites' outing is encouraging, given the lack of trust that Smith has in most of his bullpen.
"Definitely," Kellogg said. "I've never seen the kid throw that many innings, but when he gets out there the kid competes like there's no tomorrow. If you're going to give someone the ball in that situation, he's definitely one of the guys you're going to want to have it."
After a recent stretch that saw tough extra-inning losses to UCLA and Washington State, Kellogg said the main thing is to keep things in perspective for this Sun Devil team.
"Just keep everything in perspective," he said. "We hit a little bit of a rough patch, but with the rough patch we're still second in the Pac (-12) and we've won 10 or 11 series out of 13 or 14. If losing a couple games here and there is a rough patch, then in the grand scheme of things it's really not that big a deal."
The importance of this weekend means more than just winning for Kellogg.
"This weekend is huge for us," he said. "We've got to bring the regional back here to Tempe. We haven't had one here in a while, and I think the fans would really appreciate it."
This week's major shift came in the pitching rotation, with Smith electing to go with the rotation that opened the season with Lilek on Friday, Kellogg on Saturday and Martinez on Sunday.
Smith said the main goal in switching the rotation was continuing to prepare for the postseason.
"My whole mindset is that (Lilek and Kellogg) need to pitch," he said. "I don't want to go through some regional, say like last year, go two and out and sit here and say, 'Well, we didn't get to pitch one of the best stuff guys in the country.' I'm not going to do that."
Smith knows his team, just like in his previous seasons at Indiana, has the physical ability to make a deep postseason run.
"We looked at it strictly from a physical standpoint, and we broke it down position by position," Smith said. "Drafts, high drafts, whatever, the ingredients are here from a physical standpoint.
"Position player by position player, as we went around the diamond, the advantage was ASU. When we went starting pitching, and again, advantage ASU. When we went bullpen, advantage Indiana. When we went closer, advantage ASU...there are the ingredients there, in that dugout, to compete for a national championship."
ASU opens its three-game series against USC in Pasadena, California, on Friday, May 22.
Expected starting pitching rotation
Friday — LHP Brett Lilek (4-2, 3.10 ERA)
Saturday — LHP Ryan Kellogg (8-1, 3.45 ERA)
Sunday — RHP Seth Martinez (2-1, 3.79 ERA)
Injury update
ASU sophomore right-hander Eder Erives (fractured bone on his right cheek) is out for this weekend's series against USC, but Smith said Erives should be back in time for the postseason.
Lineup change?
Smith said he had been satisfied with ASU's offensive production since moving sophomore third baseman David Greer to the No. 3 spot and sophomore shortstop Colby Woodmansee to the No. 5 spot on Saturday. ASU has scored 10 runs in the two games since the move after scoring just four in the two games preceding it. Greer has gone 0-for-9, but Woodmansee appeared to bust out of a slump with a 2-for-4 day on Tuesday.
Reach the reporter at fardaya@asu.edu or follow @fardaya15 on Twitter.
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