ASU Baseball: Devils blank Xavier thanks to Vander Kooi’s arm and the long ball to remain undefeated

(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)

Arizona State is the only remaining undefeated team in the Pac-12 and one of four teams undefeated in the country, and the Sun Devils continued their win streak into their first game against Xavier University.

With 10 MPH winds blowing out, the team was set up perfectly for another dominating offensive performance, and that is exactly what they did.

The team racked up 12 runs to give them the win. The Devils did this with four home runs and 14 hits, overall batting .400 as a team. Now, all of the batters in the starting lineup are currently have a batting average of at least .300.

“Nobody’s trying to do it themselves, they are taken what they are given and trusting the guy behind them,” said head coach Tracy Smith. “We got a lot of guys that can hurt you but that’s the idea.”

Hunter Bishop set the pace with a two-run home run in the first, putting the Devils on the board. With Bishop’s team-leading six homers, he also leads the team with a .898 slugging percentage and a .531 on base percentage.

“My goal is not to go up there and hit a home run, so honestly, it’s just one pitch at a time for me. Staying in my, cliché but, process taking it one pitch at a time,” said Bishop. “That’s all I can really control, so the more I can just stay within the parameters of what I can control then the better it is.”

Lyle Lin was also a top offensive performer for the Devils, batting in four runs on three hits with one of those being a three-run home run, his third long ball of the year.

Since switching over to the designated hitter position, Lin has shown a huge improvement at the plate.

“It gives me more focus, and I can talk to my hitting coach, Mike, between at bats,” said Lin about the DH role. “When I finish my first at bat, I can be like ‘what did I do wrong’ or ‘what did I do pretty good’, so it just has me more focused.”

Going into the game, Carter Aldrete had some struggles offensively, batting .280. With a change of walk up song, he ended up going 3-for-5 with a home run tonight.

Sophomore Boyd Vander Kooi was the starting pitcher for ASU and threw seven shutout innings. After usual Friday night guy Alec Marsh was used in the midweek game against Fullerton, Vander Kooi made his first Friday night start, and it was longest and most effective start for the Devils this season, giving up just five hits and two walks for his second win of the season.

Following the game, Vander Kooi said that in his start he worked on “attacking the zone, not playing with hitter just letting them hit it and let my defense work.”

The Devils were able to use several bench player after the team got an early lead on the Musketeers. One of these players was freshman Marc Lidd, who only had four at bats prior to the game.

Lidd got up bat in the seventh inning. He hit a foul ball and Xavier’s third baseman, Jack Housinger, dropped the ball and gave Xavier their only error of the night. Lidd capitalized on this error and took the next pitch out of the park, piling onto the Sun Devil’s lead and knocking out his first collegiate home run.

The Sun Devils shut out the Musketeers 12-0 and furthered their win streak to 13-0. Following the game the game Smith referenced the teams mantra, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Smith explained that the elephant is a “good season”. The Devils are taking their win streak one game at a time.

The next game will be March 9 in the second game of the series against Xavier with junior Alec Marsh taking the mound for ASU at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.