Surprise is somewhat of a home away from home for the ASU baseball program.
In each of the past eight seasons, a team from Tempe has participated in the annual Coca-Cola College Baseball Classic.
This year will mark the ninth time the No. 11 Sun Devils (6-1) travel to Surprise Stadium for the four-day invitational.
“It’s one of my favorite trips; they treat us really well and it’s a great opportunity,” ASU coach Tim Esmay said. “It’s a road trip, but it’s also playing at home, so it is a great tune-up for us. Our guys look forward to it every year.”
The coaches use the weekend to teach some of the new players how to handle themselves on the road.
“It’s a week that our young guys can use to learn the little things,” Esmay said. “Like how do you dress, what time you have to be at practice, all the stuff everybody has to know when you’re out of town.”
ASU will play four games in four days through Sunday at the spring-training site for the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.
First up is a matchup Friday night against Cal State Bakersfield.
The Roadrunners (6-2) won’t be in awe when they see a Pac-10 team in the opposing dugout: they’ve already played the likes of Washington State and Washington.
CSB lost two of three to the Cougars to open its season, but came back a weekend later to sweep the Huskies.
The Sun Devils have never met the Roadrunners on the diamond.
ASU sophomore pitcher Brady Rodgers (1-0) is scheduled to pitch in Surprise after missing last weekend’s series against Delaware due to stiffness.
In his only start of the season, Rodgers pitched five innings of two-hit baseball, striking out five in an opening night win over New Mexico.
Sophomore Alex Blackford (1-0) got the spot start in Rodgers’ place against the Blue Hens, and performed admirably. He went five innings, gave up two earned runs and struck out five.
Through seven games this season, ASU has used 11 pitchers. The team only used 10 all of last year.
Over the weekend, the Sun Devils will see Northern Illinois, Kansas and UC Riverside, three teams with a combined record of 9-13.
The Jayhawks (4-3) recorded the best win of the bunch with a 4-3 victory over No. 8 TCU in Fort Worth on Feb. 20.
Each start time will vary depending on when the spring training game before it ends.
ASU is 17-9 all-time in Surprise, including a 4-0 mark last season with wins over Cal Poly, UC Riverside, Florida International and then-No. 10 Oregon State.
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu
