ASU Pitcher Rees No Day at the Beach : College baseball: There’s nothing laid back about the Mission Bay graduate, who has run his record to 9-0 and leads the nation in strikeouts.

Jim Brock, Arizona State’s baseball coach, never saw Sean Rees pitch at Mission Bay High, but he knew what to expect from a kid who grew up less than a mile from the beach.

“You tend to stereotype kids who live in San Diego as lazy and unmotivated,” Brock said. “A kid from San Diego, you’d be more interested in the further he lives from the beach.”

But it wasn’t long before Brock realized that Rees was not your typical beach bum.

“Sean’s personality is absolutely opposite of what you’d expect from a beach person,” Brock said. “He’s about as tough a competitor as I’ve ever coached. About the only hint you ever get that he’s from San Diego is an occasional ‘dude’ every now and then.”

But it’s not just Rees’ fiery demeanor that has Brock grinning these days; it’s also the gaudy numbers he’s putting up.

In 13 starts, Rees, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound left-hander, is 9-0 with an earned-run average of 2.33 for the Sun Devils (31-9), ranked No. 1 in the nation by Baseball America. And four starts preceding his 10-5 victory over Cal Friday had people in college baseball shaking their heads.

In complete game victories over Cal, Arizona, Hawaii and Florida State, Rees struck out 17, 11, 15 and 12. He allowed four hits in the earlier effort against Cal, three against Arizona and Hawaii and two against fifth-ranked Florida State in what Brock called his best game of the year.

“I doubt if you can go back into major college baseball and take any four-game period and have it be any more impressive than that,” Brock said.

Brock is not the only person taking notice. Last week, Collegiate Baseball named Rees its player of the week, and the Pac-10 Southern Division has selected him as pitcher of the week the past four times.

His six strikeouts Friday, in a game in which he gave up four earned runs and nine hits, gave him a nation-leading 126 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings, Rees is on a pace to break the Pac-10 single-season record of 172 by USC’s Walt Peterson in 1963.

Rees said even he is a little shocked.

“I guess I pretty much came out of nowhere,” said Rees, who was 4-1 last year with a 3.96 ERA, including a four-hit shutout against George Washington in the NCAA regionals. “I guess I fooled everyone pretty much. Because no one really expected anything. I knew I had the ability, but I never knew it could happen this fast. It’s surprised me to a point.”

It hasn’t surprised Dennis Pugh, who coached Rees at Mission Bay for four years. In Rees’ sophomore and senior years, he pitched complete-game victories in the San Diego Section title game.

“I had no doubt at all that he would do this,” Pugh said. “He’s always been good in big games. If there was a big game, he begged for the ball. He’s a special kid. He’s just such a great gifted athlete.

“But never in my 15 years of coaching have I never seen such a competitor. He has never been intimidated by size or age, even in ninth grade. I doubt if I’ll ever have another one like him.”

Brock, who has won two national titles and made 11 trips to the College World Series in 18 seasons at ASU, is beginning to think the same thing. He is already comparing Rees to Floyd Bannister, the Sporting News college baseball player of the year in 1976 who was in the majors with various teams for 12 seasons before heading to Japan this year.

“He’s further along now than Floyd was at this time in their careers,” Brock said. “They’re similar in terms of demeanor and strikeout totals, but their style of pitching is not. Bannister was kind of effortless. Sean’s more of a bulldog.”

It wasn’t until a late-night phone call from ASU’s College of Business dean, John Craft, that the bulldog became a Sun Devil.

Rees had narrowed his choices to Cal and ASU, but his mom seemed to be leaning toward Cal because of its academic reputation.

“A Cal education was very important to his mother,” Brock said. “My wife (Pat) suggested I get the dean involved. I didn’t know him, but I knew he was a big baseball fan. He called Sean and made comparisons between Cal and ASU. He pretty well convinced Sean and his mother that he could do very well here.”

Although Rees has succeeded in Tempe, he struggled his freshman season.

“Sometimes you have to try and prove yourself as a freshman,” Rees said. “That got to me. I knew if I made a mistake, maybe I wouldn’t throw the next time out. I think I was kind of insecure about my stuff. I thought if I mess up now, I’m never going to pitch.

“I came here because I knew I’d get good coaching. This is the best coaching in the country.”

Dub Kilgo, ASU’s pitching coach, said most of Rees’ problems came from a sub-par curveball.

“Last year as a freshman, Sean was one of our better competitors, but he didn’t have a real good curveball,” Kilgo said. “Still, he would compete with what he had.”

So Kilgo worked with Rees in the Alaskan summer league and during the fall on developing a sharper-breaking curve. Rees eventually mastered the pitch and is now even throwing an occasional screwball.

“My curveball was inconsistent,” Rees said. “It wasn’t a good strikeout pitch. I couldn’t throw it for strikes. This year, I can throw it for strikes any time.”

Brock said he Rees can even use it late in the game.

“The thing that really helps (Rees) now is when he gets a little tired, the curveball seems to get better,” Brock said. “The fastball loses a couple miles an hour but it moves a little more. He seems to have better command of the curve when he’s tired. He overthrows it when he’s strong.”

Rees gives all the credit for his rapid rise to Kilgo, including an improved fastball that is now being clocked in the mid-to-upper 80s.

“He’s given me a curveball, a screwball, he’s got my fastball throwing harder,” Rees said. “At first it was hard to change, but I was willing to learn because I always want to get better.

“It was kind of frustrating sometimes when the curve wouldn’t work, but I never gave up. That’s been the key. It didn’t really happen for a year, but it’s paid off.”

Rees, Kilgo and Brock all agree that the big payoff didn’t really come until ASU’s game with Texas this year. In that game, Rees outpitched Texas ace Kirk Dressendorfer for six innings in a game eventually won by the Longhorns.

“That was the point when I knew I could compete with anybody in the country,” Rees said. “That was pretty exciting.”

Though the curve and screwball have taken Rees game to another level, Kilgo said the fastball is still his best pitch.

“His success has been attributed to his command of the fastball,” Kilgo said. “He can make the ball hop when he throws it high and sink it when he throws it low. It makes it extremely tough to get a bat on it.”

Kilgo said Rees’ deceptive motion also helps.

“I think they’re surprised at how quickly the ball gets on them,” Kilgo said. “He hides the ball very well, and the ball just almost explodes on them at the last minute. You see a lot of arms, then you see the ball, and it’s got some hop on it. A lot of guys with movement like that have trouble locating the ball; he doesn’t.”

Rees has already proven that he is not like a lot of guys.

“A lot of people have gifts, and a lot of people throw 90 (m.p.h.), but they don’t have it up in the head,” Rees said. “I’ve always known my competitiveness has been the key for me.”