The cliche is not just on your court, Mr. March Madness.
The sports world’s most recently overused mantra, passed on from season to season — “parity” — is just as applicable to the college baseball world.
Answering the initial question in a postgame interview after No. 4 ASU’s (14-3, 0-0 Pac-10) 12-10 win over Kansas on Sunday night in Surprise, coach Pat Murphy quickly raised his head, asserted a sharper voice inflection, shifted subject and gave context to the Sun Devils’ 3-2 record in the Coca-Cola Tournament.
“Anybody can beat anybody can’t they?” Murphy said.
After last Saturday’s action, that became a rhetorical question.
No. 4 ASU lost 3-2 to an unranked Kansas team that had reeled off seven straight wins before losing to ASU on Friday. Call it the microcosm within the nutshell. Top 25 teams across the nation got shelled.
No. 1 Georgia was swept in a doubleheader by unranked Alabama.
Missouri, which ASU handled earlier in the year, defeated No. 3 Texas. Unranked Duke shut out No. 7 Miami. Unranked Minnesota beat No. 17 TCU. On Sunday, unranked Kentucky beat No. 5 LSU.
To spare the brain-wracked bracketologists, there were more. Interpretation: Teams beat other teams they weren’t supposed to.
Murphy feels like the competition ASU received from Kansas State and Kansas, much like Missouri proved, will go on to earn respect from the college baseball elite.
Translation: ASU’s wins over the two teams in Surprise as well as their victories over Missouri at Packard Stadium, fit into the sports world’s second-most overused phrase category — “underrated.”
“I think all of those three teams [Missouri, Kansas and Kansas State] will be in the middle of the pack of the Big 12,” Murphy said.
Get right brothers
The five-game, seven-day tournament in Surprise yielded the most productive stretch of the young season for the brotherly infield duo of freshman Riccio and junior Raoul Torrez.
Riccio, a catalyst in ASU’s 12-10 tournament finale with three hits including his first home run of the year and three RBIs, finished the five games going 11 for 16 with eight RBIs and five extra-base hits.
The numbers did not necessarily represent his most impressive feat of the five game-stretch. Riccio played all infield positions in the tournament except for third base. He played first base on Sunday.
“The hardest thing was catching the ball [at first],” Riccio said.
Riccio let his brother Raoul cover third among other positions.
Riccio was not the only ASU hitter who found their groove in Surprise. Raoul had two hits and an RBI in the tournament opener on Tuesday, a key RBI single on Wednesday and reached base three times in the tournament finale.
Junior Kole Calhoun was not a bystander in ASU’s three-run-scoring barrages over the week either. Calhoun, diagnosed with an early season case of “at ’em ball” sickness, mended his metal by going 10 for 23 in the tournament with two home runs, two doubles and eight runs scored.
“They finally started to fall,” Calhoun said. “It’s kind of frustrating when the balls you hit hard are right at people.”
Outbacker back in
Junior pitcher Josh Spence returned to the mound this week after recovering from the concussion he suffered when a line drive struck him in the face. The Australian native pitched eight innings in two starts and allowed only two runs.
Reach the reporter at nick.ruland@asu.edu.
