The ASU baseball team will be playing its first home game in more than 18 months tonight.
Not technically, but after a year of playing home games in Mesa at HoHoKam Stadium, the Sun Devils will play their first contest at Packard since late May of 2001.
Renovations to Packard have been slow in coming, and will continue after this season, but the Sun Devils will not let that disrupt them on their path to Omaha this year. The team is geared and ready, and has brought back a strong lineup to get them there.
An outfield composed of junior right fielder Andre Ethier, junior center fielder Rod Allen and freshman left fielder Travis Buck will roam the green grass of Bobby Winkles Field for the Sun Devils. Buck was originally an infielder but switched to the outfield to fill a void.
"Both of them (Ethier and Allen) and (assistant) coach (Jay) Sferra helped me out a whole lot and they're making me more comfortable and they believe in me that I'l make the plays," Buck said.
On the diamond, the middle infield is comprised of junior Steve Garrabrants at second and sophomore Dustin Pedroia at shortstop. Last season Pedroia alternated between third, short and second, but should stay at short most of this season after a stellar defensive year where he committed just four errors and had a fielding percentage of .983. On the corners, senior Dennis Wyrick will battle with junior Frank Mesa for the third base spot, while sophomore Jeff Larish holds down the first base position after junior Jeremy West was moved to designated hitter. Sophomore Joel Bocci will probably catch for the Sun Devils, but don't count out fellow sophomore Tuffy Gosewisch, who has been equally impressive early.
Starting on the hill Murphy will go with sophomore right hander Mark Sopko in game one of the series. The second game starter will be senior right hander Jered Liebeck while southpaw freshman Erik Averill gets the nod in game three. All three pitchers collected a win in their first starts in Hawaii while ringing up seven, six and seven strikeouts respectively.
Junior right hander Ryan Schroyer will remain in the closer role after a stellar season in relief last year. Schroyer led the Pac-10 with eight saves and posted an ERA of 2.37. He's already converted on one save opportunity this year.
ASU's first opponent will be no walk through the park though. The Aztecs were picked 33rd in the country in Baseball America's top-50 pre-season poll, and were picked to win the Mountain West conference for the fourth straight year by the league's coaches.
The big story for San Diego State tonight will be in the dugout, as former San Diego Padres' eight time batting champion Tony Gwynn makes his collegiate head coaching debut.
"We got Tony Gwynn, one of the greatest baseball players of all time coming in so it should be a big crowd and I think alot of excitement going on," ASU senior middle reliever Robbie McClellan said.
Although Gwynn has never managed a game before, his accolades are enough to make him a valuable addition to any teams coaching staff. A 15-time All-Star, Gwynn had a career .338 average in 20 seasons with the Padres. Gwynn also played for the Aztecs from 1979-1981.
In 2003 he'll be fielding a potent offensive team with some key returners from last year's squad. One of those happens to be Gwynn's son Anthony. A junior pre-season All-American, Gwynn hit.339 with 36 RBI and led the 2002 squad in runs scored with 58 as a sophomore. An outfielder, he's touted as their quickest runner on the basepaths.
Another pre-season All-American is junior third baseman Chad Corona. During his sophomore campaign, Corona batted .323 with nine homeruns (team lead) and 34 runs driven in. One more returning bat ASU must watch out for is 2002 freshman All-American right fielder Jake Mclintock. His .374 average was second on the team and the slugger hit eight round trippers and drove in a team high 58 runs.
Tonight's contest is slated for 7 pm, with Saturday and Sunday games taking place at 1 pm. After this weekend the Sun Devils will travel to California to face Long Beach State for a three game series, but then return home for 25 consecutive ballgames, including the Pac-10 opener against Stanford March 22-24.
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
