At first glance, it seemed like an odd time for a grin.
Sitting in a room beneath the hallowed stands of Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb., freshman Deven Marrero stared out at a horde of reporters and faced questions – along with teammates Mitchell Lambson and Kole Calhoun and coach Tim Esmay – about a loss to South Carolina that eliminated the ASU baseball team from the College World Series.
Sure, Marrero was as disappointed as the rest of his teammates who were hoping to lift ASU’s first national championship plaque since 1981. After a stellar regular season in which the Sun Devils earned their record fourth-straight Pac-10 title, there were plenty of reasons for optimism when the team stepped onto college baseball’s largest stage.
But something occurred to the star freshman during those trying moments: The season had been one heck of a ride, and it was only getting started.
“I'd say this is one of the best years as a team that I’ve been a part of in my life,” Marrero said in the aftermath of that June loss to the eventual CWS champions.
It was an experience that, despite the disappointment the ending brought, had Marrero anxiously anticipating the future.
Now in the middle of his team’s fall practice schedule, Esmay, entering his second season as ASU’s coach and first without the interim label, says he has thought often about the words of his young player that day.
“You remember the excitement Deven Marrero had after the [College] World Series in saying it was the most fun he had ever had playing baseball ... a lot of guys felt that way,” Esmay said. “We have kind of adopted that as our mindset.”
It was a mindset, though, that Esmay had already brought to the team when he took over last season in a pinch for longtime coach Pat Murphy, who resigned under fire amid NCAA accusations. An ASU lifer — he played in Tempe in the ‘80s and then spent nine seasons as an assistant coach — Esmay immediately injected calm into what could have been a stormy atmosphere. The players repeated a phrase similar to this one all year: Playing baseball for Esmay makes the game fun.
The test for Esmay and the program, though, is now approaching. The skipper knows as well as anyone the expectations that come with playing for and coaching at ASU. Winning Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors and guiding the Sun Devils to a 52-10 record last season has only increased fervor among a loyal fan base that is desperate of a CWS title.
With Esmay in attendance during one of his weekly press conferences earlier this season, football coach Dennis Erickson, who won a share of the Pac-10 title in his first season as ASU’s coach in 2007, playfully reminded his baseball counterpart that the first conference title is the easy one. It only gets tougher after that, Erickson mused.
But Esmay believes his team will be able to handle the heat and is confident he is even better equipped to coach the squad with one year as its skipper under his belt.
“I think what I learned most the first year is just about how to understand these kids,” Esmay said. “You learn that each one of them is different. That was the biggest thing, just trying to understand them and mesh all of that talent.”
One of Esmay’s tasks for the fall is selecting a starting pitching rotation to replace the three starters from last season – Seth Blair, Merrill Kelly, Jake Borup – who all passed up their senior seasons to join the professional ranks.
Esmay pointed out Brady Rodgers, owner of a 2.11 ERA in 72.2 innings pitched as a freshman last season, as a player he expects to develop into a solid starter. Lambson, a junior, could also move into the rotation after flourishing the past two seasons as the staff's dominant setup man.
“For me, it really doesn’t matter [what my pitching role is],” said Lambson, who is resting his arm during fall practice after pitching well in the Cape Cod League during the summer. “[Pitching coach Ken] Knutson does a great job handling the pitchers, and we've got a lot of talented arms coming in this year with freshman and junior college transfers. We're just trying to see where everyone fits in, and wherever I fit in, whatever I can do to help the team win, that's my main focus this year.”
Left-hander Kyle Ottoson, a junior college transfer from South Mountain Community College, is a three-time Major League Baseball draftee who Esmay said could also figure into the rotation.
ASU lost key position players to the MLB draft, but the Sun Devils return the reigning Pac-10 Player of the Year in junior Zach MacPhee and a host of other talented offensive players, including juniors Riccio Torrez, Zach Wilson, Johnny Ruettiger, sophomores Andrew Aplin and Marrero and senior Matt Newman.
It’s a group chomping at the bit to get back to Omaha and determined to have fun along the way.
“There were a lot of accomplishments last year, but our main goal was to win in Omaha and we didn’t do that,” Lambson said. “So there’s definitely a lot of work to be done and that’s motivating. It keeps us working hard every day.”
Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu
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