ASU’s Murphy: ‘We peaked too soon’

OMAHA, Neb. - The Arizona State baseball team that left the College World Series early is not the same outfit that won 22 of 24 games late in the regular season, according to coach Pat Murphy.

Three liabilities that were waiting to emerge — gassed starting pitching, a sudden lack of timely hitting and no innate ability to pull out a game, by any means necessary — resulted in the two losses in three games.

The end, which came in a dramatic 8-7 loss in 10 innings against UC Irvine on Tuesday, was a disappointing conclusion for the Sun Devils, whose machine-like performance for most of the year made them a heavy favorite to win here.

“We assembled a good team, but we didn’t have the maturity and the stamina to win a national championship,” Murphy said. “I think we peaked too soon, and I couldn’t control it because we were going so good. You couldn’t purposely slow them down. You have to fight through stuff and find other ways to win.

“We never had to find other ways to win, because we blew everyone out with our offense and had good (starting) pitching. We didn’t have to find other ways, taking walks, stuff like that.”

When the ASU Express — the team scored almost 10 runs a game in the regular season, the most in the nation — slowed in Omaha, the lack of bullpen depth that had been taxing the starters became harder to play through.

The Sun Devils batted just .245 (26-for-106) here, a 105-point drop from their pre-CWS average.

First baseman Brett Wallace had the highest-profile funk, going 0-for-12 in the series, but designated hitter Kiel Roling (0-for-9), third baseman C.J. Retherford (2-for-12) and outfielders Tim Smith (1-for-9) and Matt Spencer (2-for-10) also struggled. Catcher Petey Paramore and shortstop Andrew Romine broke out of CWS slumps with three hits each on Tuesday.

“We live and die with our lineup scoring a bunch of runs,” Murphy said. “We didn’t have a lot of depth in our pitching.”

Sporadic middle relief all year resulted in ASU leaning on starters Mike Leake, Josh Satow and Brian Flores. Each threw more than 125 innings, and the effects of the workload were revealed at Rosenblatt Stadium. Murphy’s decision to bring in Satow after Flores struggled in the opening inning against Oregon State on Monday was second-guessed. But the move was also a megaphone statement of the faith the coach had in his bullpen.

“Satow and Leake are 150 pounds, and they ran out of gas,” Murphy said. “We rode them hard. I was worried about those guys three weeks ago.”

Building pitching depth will be a priority next year, with Leake returning and Satow likely back. Closer Jason Jarvis could become a starter, but Murphy said it is too soon to tell right now.

Transfers Derek Olvey (Louisiana State) and Tommy Rafferty (Angelo State) redshirted this year, and left-hander Jeff Urlaub, who showed potential in 10 starts as a freshman in 2006, could return sometime next season after recent elbow ligament-replacement (Tommy John) surgery.

Among the position players returning are Wallace, Paramore, Roling, right fielder Ike Davis and third baseman Matt Hall. The Sun Devil hope such drafted recruits as pitchers Seth Blair, Brett Zawacki and R.J. Preach, infielder Jake Elmore and outfielder Matt Newman opt to enroll in school.

“For the most part, I’m excited for the guys next year and the year after that,” Romine said. “We have a great group of young players who will get better because of what they’ve done and contributed to this team.”

Murphy must replace assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Henry “Turtle” Thomas, who accepted the head-coaching position at Florida International before the start of the CWS. The coach said he might look within his staff — Jeff Mousser, Mikel Moreno and Michael Collins are graduate managers — but added that he has gotten “a lot of nice phone calls” about the position.

ASU left Omaha with a fifth-place finish, the lowest of Murphy’s three CWS trips. It was the runner-up in 1998 and third in 2005.

“It’s kind of cool to be a top-five program again,” Murphy said, “but it’s disappointing to know that whoever wins the national championship, you feel you can beat them."