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By ANNALIESE LEON
Cronkite News
TEMPE — The anticipation of a new season isn’t all that is exciting for Arizona State’s baseball team.
In addition to his duties as their head coach, Tracy Smith took over as the team’s pitching coach, a move that has been met by enthusiasm from the Sun Devils.
Smith decided to take on the pitching coach role after Brandon Higelin, who coached the pitchers the previous two seasons, departed the program in December.
“Honestly, the whole (pitching) staff likes it a lot more than previously,” said sophomore left-hander Zach Dixon. “We’ve actually been working 10 times harder. The staff as a whole has gotten a lot better with (Smith) as the pitching coach. We’re really excited for this year.”
The move came just weeks before the Sun Devils began preparations for their season opener Friday against Northwestern at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.s season. So Smith decided to wait until after the season to hire a replacement and do double duty this season.
Higelin came with Smith from Indiana in 2015 and has since joined the rival Arizona Wildcats in Tucson as director of player development.
Smith is no stranger to coaching pitchers. He was hired at Indiana originally to serve as a pitching coach and later elevated to head coach.
“It’s bringing me back to my roots,” he said “I’ve done this a couple other times in my coaching career. I actually started as a pitching coach.”
It also has given him a hands-on role with his players that Smith had missed.
“It’s been good, because you come into a particular program like this (and) you’re a head coach. It takes on some of the characteristics more or less of a CEO,” Smith said. “You don’t get to do as much of the stuff that you really enjoy doing, which is coaching.
“It’s fun to see a team come together. We’ve got a long ways to go before we become a team. But I like what the older guys are doing, embracing and helping the younger guys along.”
Senior right-handed pitcher Eder Erives is one of those “older guys” Smith has relied on for leadership. He said the change in coaching roles has been an easy adjustment for the pitching staff.
“Getting a new pitching coach wasn’t a big difference for me,” he said. “It’s just adapting to what their philosophy is, which is pretty much the same as what (Smith) had last year.”
The transition had to be made quickly with the season close at hand, but the Sun Devils said the change was welcome.
“It was kind of lopsided,” Dixon said of last season under Higlen’s guidance. “People didn’t really know what was going on. The pitching coach would say something, but then (Smith) would say something different.
“I was kind of having a hard time with the mindset of what we were supposed to be doing and things like that. Him being the pitching coach now, it’s more straightforward.”
Smith’s approach is more about mind than body.
“Higelin was more of a mechanical pitching coach, teaching you your mechanics,” Erives said. “(Smith) does that as well, but with him it’s more of the mental aspects, like going out there to compete and execute pitches. That’s the difference . . .”
