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Baseball picked No. 1 overall seed

The ASU baseball team will begin its quest for national championship as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. ASU is hosting the Tempe Regional, which begins Friday with the Sun Devils facing Wisconsin-Milwaukee. (Nick Kosmider | State Press)
The ASU baseball team will begin its quest for national championship as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. ASU is hosting the Tempe Regional, which begins Friday with the Sun Devils facing Wisconsin-Milwaukee. (Nick Kosmider | State Press)

Tucked in a small conference room at Packard Stadium Monday morning, the ASU baseball team watched ESPN’s release of the 64-team NCAA Baseball Tournament bracket.

About five minutes into the 30-minute broadcast, the Sun Devils (47-8) received an honor no ASU team has ever garnered before: the No. 1 overall seed.

Some players sat quietly in their seats, while others clapped. But the most common reaction from the team was a resoundingly subdued, businesslike smirk.

“I think in years past it’s been, ‘Let’s get to Omaha,’” ASU senior third baseman Raoul Torrez said. “Now I think the mentality is we’ve been there, we’ve seen the opening ceremonies, the fireworks, the cool stuff; we want to go there and we want to win.”

The top-ranked Sun Devils will open up regional play at home Friday against Horizon League Champion Wisconsin-Milwaukee. ASU swept a four-game home series against the Panthers (33-24) last year, winning by at least eight runs in each contest.

“There’s no assumptions in this locker room, not at all,” ASU junior pitcher Seth Blair said. “We know that this is going to be a tough regional. The first game is going to be a battle. If we get lucky enough to win, then we know it’s going to be the same for the Super Regional. But we’re not looking past game one.”

Western Athletic Conference Champion Hawaii (33-26) and West Coast Conference Champion No. 25 San Diego (36-20) fill out the rest of the weekend's double-elimination tournament.

“There’s four champions in this bracket,” ASU coach Tim Esmay said. “If you’ve [won your conference], that means you have a pretty good idea of how to win. And you have a pretty good idea of how to win when it matters.”

The Sun Devils defeated San Diego twice already this season, while Hawaii will only have to travel 15 minutes west to Tempe from Mesa, where the WAC conference tournament was held.

“Those teams are going to be playing their best games of the season,” Torrez said. “So we’re still taking it with full caution and we’re going to be more focused on how we are going to be prepared, because we are just expecting them to be at their best.”

A record eight Pac-10 teams made the field of 64, only adding to the confidence ASU gained from winning the conference outright for the fourth straight season.

“Of the four [consecutive Pac-10 titles], I would say this was the toughest one, competition-wise,” Torrez said. “It seemed like every team was harder to beat. No one really gave up, everyone was competing the whole game.”

The coach echoed his senior leader.

“It’s good that the Pac-10 was as tough as it was this year, because it allowed those guys to get the idea about what it feels like,” Esmay said. “I’m telling you on Saturday [against Stanford], that was about as close a regional type feeling, because it was just back and forth and it was up and down and every little thing mattered.”

If the Sun Devils should advance out of the Regional round, ASU would host a Super Regional starting June 11 or 12 against the winner of the Fayetteville Regional that features No. 15 Arkansas.

“It’s home cooking being at home and having your fans behind you,” Esmay said. “Because we all know, this weekend at some point, it’s going to get hairy, and when it gets hairy it’s nice to have your fans there to pick you up.”


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