Jared Cohen
The Arizona State baseball team was selected as the number two seed in the Fullerton regional hosted by the number five overall seed in the College World Series, Cal State Fullerton. The three seed is New Mexico whom the Devils take on first on Friday and the fourth seed is Columbia. It is a four team, double-elimination will be played from May 31st to June 3rd.
ASU is making its 36th NCAA postseason appearance, which is tied for the fifth most among all schools. Of the 64 teams competing in the road to Omaha, ASU has played against seven of them and had the combined record of 12-5. Those teams include: Arkansas, Wichita State, New Mexico, Oregon, UCLA, Valparaiso and Oregon State.
“Batting averages, wins and losses, your record means absolutely nothing right now,” said ASU baseball coach Tim Esmay. “It’s the start of a brand new season. It’s a fresh start.”
“It was a big expectation for us to go to postseason this year,” junior pitcher Trevor Williams mentioned. “It would have been a major disappointment if we didn’t. That’s how we’re trained in our brains, to go to postseason no matter what. Last year we couldn’t let out our Sun Devil monster. Now this year we have the opportunity.”
All games will be televised on ESPNU/ESPN3. The schedule for the weekend is as follows:
Friday, May 31, 2013
Game 1: 4 p.m. PT – New Mexico (37-20) vs. Arizona State (35-20-1) – On ESPN3
Game 2: 8 p.m. PT – Columbia (27-19) at No. 5 Cal State Fullerton (48-8)
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Game 3: 4 p.m. PT – Losers of Game 1 and Game 2
Game 4: 8 p.m. PT – Winners of Game 1 and Game 2
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Game 5: 4 p.m. PT – Winner of Game 3 and Loser of Game 4
Game 6: 8 p.m. PT – Winners of Game 5 and Game 4
Monday, June 3, 2013
Game 7: 8 p.m. PT – *If necessary
In addition, the Pac-12 announced their All-Conference teams on Wednesday and three Sun Devils were named. The three include: Michael Benjamin, Kasey Coffman and Ryan Kellogg. All receiving the honor for the first time.
Benjamin was the leader on team offensively as he finished first in the conference in slugging percentage (.569), hits (81) and total bases (132). He is the only player in the Pac-12 to place in the top four in the conference in batting average, slugging percentage, runs scored, hits and home runs.
Coffman, the former Brophy Bronco outfielder, had a great junior regular season as he led the team in runs scored (52), second on the team in doubles (12) and RBI (43) and third on the team in home runs (7). He also by far-and-away lead the team in getting hit by pitch (13).
Kellogg, the Freshman left-handed starting pitcher, finished the regular season at 11-0 and ranks third on ASU’s single-season freshmen wins list. He is the only pitcher in the conference with at least nine wins to go undefeated.
Benjamin, Coffman, Kellogg look to continue their 2013 success in their first step in the road to Omaha. They take on the New Mexico Lobos on Friday at 4pm.
