ASU+CWS = Disappointment

Another Tough One for ASU

I descended onto Omaha for two reasons: 1) For a family vacation I attend ever year 2) To see ASU in the College World Series (which I will refer to as the CWS). You see, ASU needs all the help they can get in the CWS. They have made it to Omaha numerous times this decade and more than once have had teams that have been favored to win it all. What has happened every year? They find ways to lose. This happened in heart breaking fashion this week against Texas, in which ASU blew leads in two games that would have led them to the CWS title game.

ASU beat North Carolina last Sunday to set up a game with Texas, the winner wouldn’t have to play another game until Friday and would have to lose twice in two days in order to be knocked out of the tournament. All looked good for ASU as they raced to a 6-0 lead and had Mike Leake, the best pitcher in the country not named Stephen Strasburg, on the mound. Leak, however, had his worst game as a Sun Devil and Texas scored 10 unanswered runs to defeat ASU 10-6. Entering the game Leake had a 16-1 record with an ERA under 1.30, spotting him a 6-0 lead was virtually guarantying ASU a victory. This would have been like Randy Johnson blowing a 6-0 lead in the 2001 Word Series, stuff like that just doesn’t happen.

Since they lost to Texas, ASU had to play North Carolina again on Thursday. After falling down 4-0 ASU rallied back to win 12-4, thanks to North Carolina’s complete inability to find the strike zone. They walked 10 guys and threw five wild pitches, it was like Ricky Vaughn in Major League before he got his glasses. ASU’s reward for defeating North Carolina for the second time in a week was to play Texas again, only this time ASU was going to have to beat Texas twice in a row to make it to the title game against LSU. It looked like it could possibly happen as ASU held a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth before Texas hit two solo home runs to win the game. It was another crushing defeat for ASU in the CWS, which they have made a habit of this decade.

I thought this ASU team was going to be the one to net ASU its first National Title since 1978. Unlike ASU teams of the past that were full of great hitting, this team had great pitching. Mike Leake and Josh Spence were two of the top five starters in the country. ASU lead the Nation in team ERA. They had good enough hitters to exploit their huge advantage in pitching. It just wasn’t meant to be this year. If Mike Leake can hold a 6-0 lead against Texas and ASU can hold a one run lead in the ninth last night, ASU is in the CWS final and all of this changes. Instead, this is another disappointing year. Just like when ASU lost to Cinderella UC Irvine in 2007.

This has to hurt for Pat Murphy, who is the best coach in the Pac 10 and always pulling in top 10 recruiting classes. He has yet to win the big one, however, and this could start to become an issue. He is a lot like Mack Brown was for Texas football before he won a title, good records andrecruits every year but no title to show for it. The people of Texas wanted to run Mack Brown out of town before he finally won. No one wants to run Pat Murphy out of town, except maybe ASU AD Lisa Love (who doesn’t like him for some reason), but the lack of winning a title has to be getting to him. Murhpy should be commended for his work this year. He took a team loaded with freshmen and led them to the CWS. ASU will return a lot of players next  year, so their future is bright.

Let’s just hope these freshman don’t choke in 2010.