Overcoming almost all adversity in a season that has seen the ASU baseball team climb to the top spot in the nation, the Sun Devils will face another great challenge over the next two weeks when they play eight games in 11 days.
Starting today, the Sun Devils take on Oklahoma in a three-game set with all start times coming at 7 p.m. Next week ASU will host a pair with Wichita State Tuesday and Wednesday before Stanford comes to town for three, kicking off the Pac-10 season.
So far this year, the Sun Devils (28-1) have seen stellar play from their two guys up the middle, sophomore shortstop Dustin Pedroia and junior second baseman Steve Garrabrants.
Pedroia has shown his slick fielding skills all season, committing just three errors, correlating to a fielding percentage of .977. Last year, he was even better, making just four errors all season.
For Garrabrants, he's struggled to maintain poise at second, making three errors in a two-game span earlier this season, causing head coach Pat Murphy to bench him for a game. Since then, the second baseman has been solid, something assistant coach Mike Rooney attributes to Garrabrants slowing himself down and taking the time to field the slow spinning balls that can cause him fits.
"Athletically, Steve's as good as anybody," Rooney said. "The key for him has been slowing himself down because he's almost too fast out there sometimes."
Both Pedroia and Garrabrants agree that communication has been the key to their success on the infield, talking with each other throughout the game to make sure they're on the same page.
"He's a big talker and I've learned a lot from him," Garrabrants said of Pedroia. "At practice we just try to get used to each other and the way we play."
Pedroia said he prefers knocking one out of the ballpark as opposed to turning a double play.
"I don't do it that often," Pedroia said of hitting home runs. "Steve does a lot."
Something Pedroia does do a lot of for ASU is make amazing defensive plays.
Two weeks ago against Penn State the shortstop robbed four Nittany Lions of hits with diving stabs to his right and left.
"Pedroia's as good a shortstop as there is in the country," Rooney said.
"He has unbelievable instincts, he's a student of the game, and he has a great feel for baseball."
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
