Just under a year ago, the ASU baseball team walked into Eugene with a 24-0 record, only to suffer its first loss of the season 6-5 in 12 innings.
Twelve months later, the No. 9 Sun Devils (18-6, 2-1 Pac-10) host the Ducks (14-9, 0-0 Pac-10) in Tempe.
This time, however, ASU doesn’t boast the same sort of winning streak.
The Sun Devils beat rival UA two out of three times to start conference play last weekend, while the Ducks wrapped up the non-conference by splitting four games with Wichita State.
“We don’t think about last year,” ASU junior outfielder Johnny Ruettiger said. “Every team we play we have the same mindset against. We’re out to win every game.”
UO is a program on the rise.
After not fielding a team from 1982-2008, the reinstated Ducks went 14-42 their first season back, then made a huge turnaround to 40-24 last year.
“They aren’t willing to strikeout; they put the ball in play and put pressure on your defense,” ASU coach Tim Esmay said. “They move runners, use bunts and do hit and runs. The play with a level of understanding.”
The Ducks are led by coach George Horton. The former Cal State Fullerton manager led the Titans to six College World Series appearances in 11 seasons, including a national championship in 2004.
“He’s been very successful,” Esmay said. “You can definitely start to see his impact on the team. They play like Fullerton played in the past.”
UO’s top two pitchers, juniors Tyler Anderson and Madison Boer, are a combined 6-0, both with ERAs under 2.00.
“They have very strong pitching and their offense is opportunistic,” Esmay said. “Their pitching staff lives on playing in close games, so they play for one run at a time a lot.”
The Sun Devils will counter with Brady Rodgers (3-1, 2.33 ERA) on Friday, Kramer Champlin (3-1, 3.03 ERA) Saturday and Jake Barrett (2-2, 5.35 ERA) Sunday.
Those three will likely be the weekend rotation for the foreseeable future, leaving junior transfer Kyle Ottoson (2-0, 3.91) and sophomore Alex Blackford (2-0, 3.07) fighting for the mid-week spot starts.
“Roles are developed and kept,” Esmay said. “We do have guys that can be in long-relief or the rotation. I feel good about our pitching staff as a whole.”
The flexibility allows the Sun Devils to go to the bullpen early if one of their starters struggles.
“We’ll do everything we can to win games and then go from there,” Esmay said. “We’ll look and see who we used Friday and then see who we have available for Saturday. When the weekend is over, that’s when we’ll evaluate what we have for the mid-week games.”
ASU played 13 games in 17 days from March 11-27, while traveling to Auburn and Fullerton.
The team used its needed time off this week to work on areas that came up while playing the gruesome schedule.
“This was a good break for us to have some good practices,” Esmay said. “We’re refining things. Things that come up when you play that many games and it’s kind of hard to take care of it while you’re playing.”
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu
FRIDAY’S GAME
Ducks at No. 9 Sun Devils
When: 6:30 p.m.
Where: Packard Stadium
Oregon update: The Ducks are coming off of a split series with Wichita State. UO was the surprise of the Pac-10 last season after going 40-24, but haven’t seen the same kind of success so far this season. This weekend will be a good barometer for the Ducks.
