(Photo: Dominic Cotroneo/WCSN)
It’s tough to sustain much success in baseball if the very core of a team’s play is flawed from a fundamental standpoint.
Though the 2015 Sun Devils have shown flashes of dominance and elite potential, mental breakdowns in different facets of the game have held them back from experiencing extended periods of success.
Arizona State (10-5) may have scraped out a 5-4 win over UNLV (7-8) on Wednesday night, but head coach Tracy Smith wasn’t resting on his laurels.
“I’m not going to sit here and say I’m really comfortable with the way we’ve played up to this point,” Smith said. “We’ll throw together a good game and then we’ll go out and do what you saw tonight and make two plays in which I could go to Ahwatukee Little League and they probably wouldn’t make those plays. I’ve got to believe that you make those kind of mistakes, you’re going to get beat in this league.”
The instances to which Smith was referring were both mental breakdowns on the base paths. The first featured Zach Cerbo being gunned down at third base after unnecessarily trying to go from first to third on a base hit by David Greer The second saw Jordan Aboites forgetting how many outs there were and getting doubled off on second base to end the eighth inning.
Neither of these base-running blunders cost the Sun Devils a midweek victory, but Smith is still demanding better.
“It’s just guys concentrating and understanding. Zach made a poor read on a ball in center field,” Smith said. “Two outs, it’s just understanding the game and knowing your own limitations. Again, he made a poor read and there’s no excuses for it. Jordan, I don’t know, I haven’t talked to him about it. We work on that stuff constantly. Today it didn’t cost us, but you continue to do that stuff and it’ll catch up to you at some point.”
Fortunately for ASU, base hits with two outs and runners in scoring position have momentum-altering and mistake-masking powers.
Pitted in an early 3-1 hole, ASU struck for a four-run fifth inning that featured two two-out, two-RBI singles from Trever Allen and Cerbo.
After Allen dug out a low fastball and deposited it into right field for a two-out, two-run single, Cerbo followed suit and avenged his aforementioned base-running blunder with a two-run single of his own. The four-run inning gave ASU a 5-3 lead.
“I took the first pitch just because he had been all over the place,” Allen said of his key at-bat. “He threw it right down the middle so I was kind of mad about that. The next few pitches, I swung at a ball that was middle-in, probably a little bit high, and took a good swing at it. Then, I was just in the two-strike, fight mode and got a pitch that I could hit and hit it.”
The hits from Allen and Cerbo were key not only for the Sun Devils in helping them notch their tenth win of the season, but also in getting the runners-in-scoring-position monkey off their backs.
“When you look at the box score at the end of the night, we’ve been (having) double-digit hits a lot,” Smith said. “It just seems like we haven’t done a real good job of putting together good AB’s with runners in scoring position. We had plenty of opportunities tonight, just like in recent games, to extend the lead. You let a team hang around and anything can happen. I’m hoping the law of averages will play out over the season and when we have bases loaded, we’ll have better at-bats. That has to get better as we get into conference play because the opportunities to score are going to be shortened.”
The Sun Devils tallied a run in the first inning, as a triple from Jake Peevyhouse (who’s caught fire since moving up to the two spot in the lineup, compiling a .435 average in 23 at-bats) was complemented by a sac fly from Colby Woodmansee to give ASU an early 1-0 lead.
Making his first collegiate start, freshman Ryan Hingst was rolling out of the gates and looked poised to bury UNLV after being given some initial run support. He faced the minimum and dealt six (out of six possible) first-pitch strikes through two innings.
He ran into trouble in the third and fourth, however, when a sac fly from shortstop Nick Rodriguez tied the game and an RBI single and fielder’s choice then gave UNLV a 3-1 lead.
Hingst departed after five innings of work, in which he allowed five hits, three earned runs and two walks.
“I thought he was up in the strike zone all night,” Smith said of the performance from Hingst. “He had the velocity early and they weren’t catching up with it, but they were still putting the barrel on the baseball. He’s going to have to do a better job with a second pitch if he’s going to be consistent at this level. But all in all, I thought for the first college start it was okay. Hopefully he can learn from that and build on that experience.”
A trio of relievers in Eli Lingos, Darrin Gillies and Ryan Burr followed Hingst, each of whom pitched effectively and, more importantly, didn’t relinquish the lead ASU had built thanks to the four-run fifth inning.
Lingos allowed a run, which cut the Sun Devil lead to 5-4, but showcased a filthy arsenal in the process and struck out four in two innings of work. Gillies continued to impress in his new setup role, striking out two and earning a hold. Burr walked a batter in the ninth, but stranded him with ease to notch his sixth save of the season.
“We said a few days ago, we’re going to savor every win. Wins are hard to come by. I always tell people, the team in the other dugout–I don’t care who it is–they’re trying to win too. We’re not where we need to be, but we’re going to keep plugging and keep trying to get better at the little things,” Smith concluded.
The win for ASU extends its winning streak over UNLV to seven games. With non-conference play now wrapped up, the Sun Devils will begin Pac-12 play on Friday, as they host reigning conference champion Oregon State for a three-game weekend series.
Follow Jacob Garcia on Twitter @Jake_M_Garcia or connect with him on LinkedIn.
