Opening weekend at Packard Stadium.
It just has a nice ring to it.
There’s something special about all the firsts of a baseball season.
Everybody knows there will probably be many more of the same, but after a long winter fresh cut grass and dirt never smelled so good.
“I’m more excited, I try not to get too nervous,” ASU sophomore pitcher Brady Rodgers said. “I’ll probably get some butterflies before the game starts but after the first pitch is thrown, it’s game on.”
Game on against New Mexico, that is.
The Lobos stroll into Tempe on Friday for a four-game weekend set that will see a double-header played on Saturday.
New Mexico is coming off one of the best seasons in its program’s history.
The team made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 48 years by winning 38 games while playing one of the country’s toughest schedules.
The Lobos only return one position starter from a year ago but opened last season by taking two out of three games from then No. 1 Texas.
“I was in the Mountain West conference [while at Utah] and knew their coach, Ray Birmingham,” ASU coach Tim Esmay said. “You just look at the jump in their program. They are going to play hard and are going to be well managed. We are going to have a real true test coming out of the gate, and that’s going to be good for us.”
Last year, the No. 11 Sun Devils began their season against Northern Illinois, a team that would go on to post a 24-31 record.
“This year we’re going against good, strong competition,” Esmay said. “The teams that make you handle bunts and make you play baseball. The more we do that the first month, the more it’s going to put us in the fire and test us for Pac-10 play.”
Probable starters for this weekend’s four-game set include Rodgers, sophomore Jake Barrett and junior transfers Kyle Ottoson and Kramer Champlin.
“It will be a great test and a great chance for guys to go out and establish roles,” Esmay said. “By having four games, you have to have four starters. This will be a good chance for us to see who can handle the starting role when the games mean something.”
After months of training with one another, opening night can’t come soon enough.
“We’ve spent a lot of time playing against each other so we’re excited about playing somebody in a different uniform,” Esmay said. “We’re at that point. It’s kind of like that football thing where they get tired of hitting each other, I think our pitchers and our hitters are tired of facing each other.”
Rain is scheduled to move into town Friday through Sunday, so the double-header planned for Saturday might get a little wet.
ASU has met New Mexico 142 times with the Sun Devils holding a whopping 114-28 advantage.
The last time the two schools competed, ASU won in Albuquerque 22-4.
The Sun Devils are also 40-11-1 in season openers.
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu
