Along with a plethora of veterans returning to head coach Pay Murphy's team this year, ASU baseball fans will also need to keep their eyes peeled for some of the youngsters.
After one of the top-10 recruiting off-season classes in the country, ASU brings in 13 newcomers to the squad including 10 freshmen.
Murphy thinks pitchers Brett Bordes, Eric Averill, outfielder Ryan Bosch and infielder Travis Buck are some of the freshmen that may have a big impact.
"I don't have a crystal ball, but Travis Buck has showed tremendous poise," Murphy said. "Averill showed great poise and Bosch is real competitive and won't back off. Brett Bordes, unbelievably his mound presence and poise were incredible (in Hawaii)."
Averill has already shown his ability, taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning in Hawaii, surrendering no earned runs and striking out seven in 7.1 innings.
"I'm a location pitcher," Averill said. "I try to get ground balls and the less number of pitches I throw the faster I can get the team back in the dugout."
Bordes also contributed with three strikeouts in 2.2 innings of work. Buck displayed his potential with the bat, collecting eight hits in 17 plate appearances. Bosch had just three hits but he drove in six runs including one of nine ASU round-trippers over the weekend.
One of the positions Murphy thinks will be battled for during the season is catcher. Both sophomores Joel Bocci and Tuffy Gosewisch saw minimal playing time as freshmen, but their impact the first six games has proven the Sun Devils could have a potent one-two punch at the position.
"Bocci would have to be considered right now as valuable a player as there has been the first six games," Murphy said. "Then we gave Gosewich a chance to play and he matched the challenge."
Last season Gosewisch and Bocci had five and six hits respectively all season. In the first six games this year they have six and seven.
Transfer Seniors Beau Vaughn and Ben Thurmond should help the pitching staff, and sophomore Frank Mesa provides a solid utility man for Murphy.
Although experience will be an important element in bringing the youngsters along, Murphy believes the influence can go either way.
"With most teams there's a lot of help going on with older guys and younger guys, and vice versa," he said. "Sometimes younger guys come in and make it look easy which motivates older guys. That exchange happens often."
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
