There hasn’t been anything too unfriendly about the confines of Packard Stadium for the No. 1 ASU baseball team this season.
Seventeen of the Sun Devils’ 23 wins to start the 2010 season, a school record for consecutive wins out of the gate, have come at the home ballpark in Tempe.
But for all the success the team has had between the lines of the familiar field, coach Tim Esmay and his squad seem anxious to test their mettle on the road in the Pac-10, an opportunity they will have Thursday when ASU (23-0, 3-0 Pac-10) begins a three-game set with Oregon in Eugene.
“A lot of times it’s nice to get 30 guys where the only thing they have going on is baseball and the team,” Esmay said Tuesday. “All teams that are successful have to find a way to handle the road. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to win every game on the road, but you have to handle what it is to be on the road and stay driven.”
For players new to the squad, a Pac-10 road trip brings a new opportunity.
“I’m looking forward to traveling, just because I haven’t done it on this kind of scale,” said junior pitcher Merrill Kelly, a transfer from Yavapai Community College. “We didn’t really have any plane rides at Yavapai, so I’m excited. I actually wish we traveled more this year.”
This will be the first trip to Eugene in ASU’s baseball history, as UO is in its second year back after the baseball program was discontinued in 1981.
ASU leads the all-time series against UO 6-1, including a three-game sweep of the Ducks in Tempe last season.
Esmay made it clear, though, that this weekend’s opponent is not one to take lightly.
After finishing 14-42 in the program’s first season back in 2009, the Ducks are already 18-8 (1-2 Pac-10) this season, a mark that includes a four-game sweep of 2008 College World Series Champion Fresno State.
“It’s already a total turnaround from where they were last year,” Esmay said of UO. “They’re a very well-coached ball club. They’re going to know how to take advantage of stuff and playing at their park is always going to be a different scenario. Their pitching staff is third in the [Pac-10], so that’s going to be a challenge for us.”
The Ducks are coached by George Horton, who spent 11 seasons at the helm of perennial powerhouse Cal State Fullerton, where he led the Titans to a CWS title in 2004.
The Sun Devils arrived in Eugene on Wednesday in order to get acclimated to the field at UO’s brand new PK Park (named after former UO athletic director Pat Kilkenny), which features an artificial turf playing surface.
“We’ve all looked on the field on YouTube, and it looks like an awesome stadium,” junior Matt Newman said. “But we have to make sure we don’t get caught up in the surroundings around us and just play our game out there.”
Getting defensive
The Sun Devils are currently fourth in the Pac-10 in fielding percentage (.972) and are coming off a series against California in which they committed just one error.
Defense has been one of the biggest points of emphasis for Esmay in his first season as head coach, and he said he is pleased with what he has seen from his group in that facet of the game so far this season.
“We work very hard at defense and we work hard at grasping the concept of defense,” Esmay said. “When you start to see the results and you start to see us not giving away free bases, I believe that keeps you coming back for more and making you want to keep working at it.”
Esmay said he credits last year’s assistant coach Andy Stankiewicz (now with the Seattle Mariners) and this year’s infield coach Mike Benjamin, both former Major League infielders, with helping to improve defensive play for the Sun Devils.
“Our infielders, in a year, have been exposed to two of the most quality infield guys to play the game,” Esmay said of the assistants.
Players say excelling defensively at Packard Stadium, with a field known for producing a strange bounce or two from time to time, requires added concentration and confidence in a routine.
“The biggest thing is playing slow,” Newman said. “You have to slow yourself down and you can’t try to make unbelievable plays; you’ve just got to stay within yourself pretty much.”
Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu
