ASU's young players have come of age

The Arizona State baseball team oozes inexperience, and it shows.

Coach Pat Murphy insists three or four players still don’t know the signs.

When he wants them to bunt, he mouths it to them. For the first 50 games, when he wanted them to steal, he pointed at the runner and then pointed to second base.

It’s not limited to the field, either.

Players routinely forget their driver’s licenses when heading to the airport.

Some thought the College World Series immediately followed the Tempe Regional; others didn’t know there was a game this week.

And yet, for all the moments of immaturity, here they are.

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A team with the fewest losses in college baseball. A team that has gone farther than last year’s acclaimed group. A team that, with a little bit of skill and a little bit of luck, has a chance at winning the first national title for Arizona State since 1981.

“I don’t want to be the head coach sitting here saying this team has done some amazing stuff,” Murphy said. “But it has.”

Of the eight teams still left playing, the Sun Devils have the lowest team ERA at 2.78 (which is also tops in the nation).

Offensively, Arizona State also scores more than any other team in Omaha, at eight runs per game.

Murphy sounds like a broken record, but he hammers home just how unlikely this story has become.

Last year, 64 percent of the current roster was watching Arizona State from various places across the country.

Three starters returned to the lineup, but only Jason Kipnis came back with gaudy numbers. Mike Leake returned as the unquestioned ace, but there were question marks everywhere behind him.

In short, it was a far cry from the previous ASU teams, which knew they could compete with anybody.

“We never thought we were the best team,” Kipnis said.

But it’s been nary a bump as the team cruised through the Pac-10, the regional and the super regionals to get here.

Arizona State has won 16 of its past 17 games.

“We’ve gotten used to winning, and finding ways to win,” Kipnis said. “Each game is a new task, and we just all report to the challenge.”

You could have cast doubt on almost every one of these guys.

Freshman Drew Maggi entered as the fourth-string shortstop, and now is hitting .319 with 20 stolen bases as the leadoff man.

Freshman Johnny Ruettiger is second on the team with a .356 batting average, but if it weren’t for his family ties, Murphy might have never noticed him. Ruettiger’s uncle is Rudy Ruettiger, the undersized walk-on who played football for Notre Dame and was glorified in the movie “Rudy.”

Junior-college transfer Josh Spence is the back end of one of the nation’s best 1-2 starting rotations in baseball. After a tendon strain in late April, he wasn’t supposed to pitch again this year, but threw a complete game against Clemson to earn Arizona State a trip to Omaha.

Closer Mitchell Lambson is 8-3 this season with a 2.77 ERA and five saves and was recently named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball. Murphy didn’t really want to recruit him, but Lambson continued to show up at camps, eventually impressing the coach.

Murphy refers to all of them as “orange lifesavers” because it’s a group that isn’t as flashy or desired like the red lifesavers.

But, at the end of the day, they get the job done.

“Now when I get lifesavers,” Murphy said, “I throw away the red ones.”

College World Series

Who: No. 5 Arizona State vs. No. 4 North Carolina

What: Opening game in eight-team, double-elimination tournament

Where: Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha, Neb.

When: 11 a.m. Sunday

TV/Radio: ESPN/1060AM

Up next: ASU and North Carolina are in the four-team bottom bracket with Texas and Southern Miss, who face off Sunday night. The losers of the Sunday games play at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, while the winners play at 4 p.m. The last team standing advances to the three-game championship series which begins on Monday, June 22 against the winner of the top bracket, which includes Cal State Fullerton, Virginia, Louisiana State and Arkansas.

Outlook: North Carolina boasts two first round draft picks from this week’s MLB draft, including No. 2 overall pick Dustin Ackley. The junior first baseman is hitting .412 with 22 home runs and 70 RBIs. Right-hander Alex White was chosen 15th overall by Cleveland, and while his record is 8-4, it comes with a 4.13 ERA. White is expected to pitch against Arizona State. It is the fourth straight appearance in Omaha for North Carolina.