Arizona State Baseball Ends Season Ranked No. 7 By Baseball America

June 26, 2003

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TEMPE, Ariz. (www.TheSunDevils.com) -- The Arizona State Baseball team had one of its most successful seasons in recent history in 2003, going 54-14 and ended the year as a consensus top 10 team in the three national polls. The Sun Devils advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in the last seven years and fell one game short of the College World Series after losing to Cal State Fullerton in the final game of the Super Regional.

ASU ended the season tied for second in the nation with 54 wins, marking the most by a Sun Devil team since the 1988 squad won 60 games. The Sun Devils earned final 2003 rankings of No. 7 (Baseball America), No. 9 (Sports Weekly/ESPN) and No. 10 (Collegiate Baseball). Ranked eighth to open the 2003 season, the Sun Devils spent the entire season in at least one of the national publications' national top 10. Dating back to the start of the 2000 season, ASU has been ranked in the national polls for 78 consecutive weeks.

"There is no doubt that we had a great season in 2003 and really did a lot of great things on the diamond to earn a No. 7 national ranking," said ninth-year head coach Pat Murphy. "But our goal is to compete for a national championship every year and until we reach that plateau we will never be satisfied."

The 2003 Sun Devils also spent much of the season rewriting the record books, setting an NCAA record with 14 grand slams and extending their impressive NCAA record consecutive games scoring streak to 501 games dating back to April 7, 1995. ASU was the only team in NCAA Division I to rank in the top 10 in the four major statistical categories, placing second in batting (.347), second in scoring (10.03 runs per game), eighth in pitching (3.32 ERA) and ninth in fielding (.973 FLD%).

2003 Final College Baseball National Rankings