OMAHA—Pat Murphy said after Arizona State’s loss to Texas on Tuesday night that lefthander Josh Spence was very unlikely to be available today on three days’ rest. Apparently he changed his mind. About an hour ago, it was announced that the Sun Devils will indeed start Spence today against North Carolina, and not righty Seth Blair as expected. Spence threw 122 pitches over seven innings in Sunday’s win against the Tar Heels.

I think this is a mistake by Murphy, but then again, Dallas Keuchel and Danny Hultzen each threw very well on three days’ rest yesterday. But each of them threw 40-plus fewer pitches than Spence in their first CWS outings. Plus, Spence pitched very little over the last two months before racking up deep pitch counts in each of his last two outings. On the one hand, I guess that means his arm is fresher. On the other, it means he’s even less used to bouncing back so quickly. It will be fascinating to see how this move plays out.