ASU discontent with performance despite ranking

 by Andrew Pentis
 published on Thursday, March 20, 2008

Bettina Hansen / THE STATE PRESS

DOUBLE-DOUBLE: ASU junior shortstop Marcel Champagnie tags UA first baseman C.J. Zeigler out and throws to first base for a double play in the fifth inning of the Sun Devils’ 6-5 win Tuesday.

The perception of ASU's baseball dominance is now unanimous, as all five major college baseball polls ranked the Sun Devils as its top team — a trend that won't expire until defeat. But Sun Devil coaches and players sound less convinced.

Maybe it's easy for them to ignore. Or perhaps they're hiding their excitement.

"Is that what we are?" asked junior Brett Wallace. "We haven't played our best baseball yet."

And that was before the team's 18th consecutive victory to start the season, and perhaps the most prideful win. Minutes after the air came out of Tuesday's spirited victory over UA, the feeling remained the same.

Junior Ike Davis, who had a hand in scoring each of the squad's first three runs and earned the save from the mound, reiterated his teammate's tongue.

"It's college baseball," he said. "You can't even think about that.

"Hopefully we can keep it up. We're actually not playing that well right now."

Coach Pat Murphy also echoed his previous statements.

"We didn't play very well," he said. And, despite the unassailable record, Murphy may have an argument.

Case in point is what he called "shaky defense" and the continued slump of junior Kiel Roling.

ASU's rotating middle-infield trio — juniors Marcel Champagnie and Jake Elmore and sophomore Raoul Torrez — have combined to make 16 fielding errors in 18 games.

Mired in a hitting slump, Roling was dropped to the eighth spot in ASU's lineup after opening the season in the third spot. He batted .356 in 2007 but is averaging more than one strikeout per game and is hitting just .167 this season.

Davis said Roling's fly out to right-center field Tuesday would have been a two-run home run on most nights, and jested that the Sun Devils are becoming a "small ball" team.

"Kiel hit an absolute laser beam," Davis said.

It was ASU's first game without a home run since March 1, offering signs that it's capable of winning without the long ball.

The Sun Devils advanced runners on three occasions Tuesday with sacrifice bunts, and scored what proved to be a game-winning run on a sacrifice fly to the outfield.

One thing is for sure.

The Sun Devils will use what little time remains before having to counter Pac-10 teams to work out the kinks.

The conference of nine programs, despite its numerical moniker, has impressed, as seen by the very national ranking ASU players denounce. No. 1 ASU and No. 2 UA sit atop, with No. 18 Stanford, No. 20 UCLA and No. 22 California not far behind.

This weekend's competition, in short, is quite different. Hosting its final get-together, the Bob Schaefer Memorial Tournament, ASU welcomes growing programs in Northern Colorado and Florida International, as well as No. 7 UC-Irvine.

ASU will play a doubleheader Saturday against FIU, now coached by former ASU assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Henry "Turtle" Thomas.

A Sunday finale against UC-Irvine (14-1) poses the greatest risk of harm to ASU's perfect record.

Reach the reporter at: apentis@asu.edu.

For more ASU baseball coverage, visit thesundevilsweetspot.blogspot.com.