Cristian Gomez, Collegian

The Massachusetts baseball team hasn’t had a winning season since 2003.

Regardless of its results this season, however, the team won’t be accused of beginning the season against weak opposition.

UMass will play three road games this weekend against Arizona State (9-0), the top-ranked team in the USA Today/ESPN poll as well as the NCBWA poll.

Not only do the Sun Devils hold an undefeated record, they’ve made a habit of defeating opponents by large margins this season, outscoring their foes, 95-18.

“They’re strong one through six, their pitching staff is good,” UMass coach Mike Stone said. “I mean they either have a guy who throws strikes and has good command of all his breaking stuff and his off-speed stuff or they come at you hard with a lot of velocity.”

Arizona’s climate makes it conducive to playing baseball year-round, and the Sun Devils feature some of the top players in college baseball.

Pitcher Josh Satow and catcher Brett Wallace were both named preseason first team All-Americans, while the latter won the Pacific-10 Player of the Year last season.

Wallace led the conference with a .404 batting average and also led the Pac-10 in slugging percentage, runs scored, hits, RBIs, home runs and total bases.

The junior backstop has carried his success over from last season and is batting .324 this season with four home runs, while holding an impressive .477 on-base percentage.

The ASU hitters are scoring 9.88 runs per game thus far in 2008 but the pitching staff certainly cannot be looked at as a weak point of the team. Overall, the pitchers hold a collective 1.46 earned-run average this season.

Sophomore Mike Leake leads the team with 18 2/3 innings pitched and three wins while Satow leads the team in ERA (1.64) and has one win and a pair of saves.

The Minutemen look to tame the ASU bats this weekend with the starting pitching trio of Mitchell Clegg, Bryan Leigh and Nick Serino – none of whom pitched a single inning for UMass last season.

Clegg, a junior, transferred from Maine and posted a 1-1 record and an ERA of 6.00 last season in 24 innings with the Black Bears.

Leigh didn’t see any time on the mound last year and Serino is an incoming freshman who Stone thinks can contribute in a starting role this season.

Serino enjoyed a successful high school career with Malden Catholic High School, posting a 22-6 record, 254 strikeouts and a 1.56 ERA. He will now be facing the toughest competition of his life against a Sun Devil team that has a .306 collective batting average.

Stone’s original plan for the No. 1 starter was Jared Freni but the sophomore underwent meniscus surgery three weeks ago. However, he will travel with the team and should be ready soon.

Unlike the other three starters this weekend, Freni has pitched for the Minutemen. Last year he compiled a 3-4 record with a 5.12 ERA, but came on strong at the end of the season.

Though they lack experience in the pitching rotation, UMass will return two key players in the field from last season, both whom will be captains this season.

Catcher Bryan Garrity has been starting behind the plate since he arrived as a freshman in 2005. He hit .240 last season and will be responsible for guiding the young pitchers throughout the lengthy season.

Adam Tempesta has the ability to play second base or shortstop but Stone expects him to begin the season at second. The junior led the team with a .306 batting average last season while also scoring 30 runs and knocking in another 22.

Despite the formidable opponent, Stone looks forward to this weekend.

“We like to have people who like to play the best, and we use it as recruiting incentive,” he said. “[Arizona State’s] one of the best teams in the country right now so it’ll be a great challenge. It will be interesting to see how our guys respond to that.”

Mike Connors can be reached at [email protected].