(Photo: Karli Matthias/WCSN)
After scoring ten runs in Friday’s win over Notre Dame, ASU’s offense decided that ten was not good enough for Saturday and instead doubled that.
Two breakout innings for ASU’s offense helped propel the team to its second victory of the season, defeating Notre Dame 20-7 in game two against the Fighting Irish. The Devils have now scored 30 runs in their last two games, and Saturday night was the first time ASU has scored 20 or more runs since April 28, 2010.
A seven-run fifth inning and a six-run sixth inning proved to be the breakthrough for ASU. The offense recorded 10 of its 20 hits in those two innings alone. Junior Carter Aldrete hit two home runs for the Devils, after only hitting three all of last season, while also driving in six RBI.
Other key contributors included three RBI from junior Lyle Lin and a four-hit game from sophomore Gage Workman. Seven ASU hitters tallied multi-hit games, four of those seven with over three hits. The approach of seeing pitches and being patient at the plate paid dividends for the Devils.
“Our guys have been doing a really good job of having mature bats, laying off, working counts, understanding what their role is and not just free swinging,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “Up to this point, we have been very pleased with the maturity of the at bats.”
Aldrete also pointed out that the lineup has a sense of calm and that they are not putting so much pressure on themselves to do a lot during at-bats.
“There’s a lot of returners in our lineup,” Aldrete said. “Over the years, we all tried to do a little too much. I think with everyone else around us, it makes you that much more calm because they are not just pitching to you. They are pitching to everyone in our lineup who can bang it a little bit.”
One of Aldrete’s home runs cleared the wall with ease while his other homer made it over by only a couple of feet. It’s safe to say that moving the fences in has the approval of the man himself.
“The fences moving in just changes our whole aspect as a team,” Aldrete said. “Those balls were outs last year but aside from that, it plays to our advantage as a lineup.”
Smith echoed Aldrete’s words and also included that tonight was a perfect example of why they moved the fences in.
“That’s what we talked about,” Smith said. “We still feel like we are going to hit more long fly balls than our opponent. We build a team based on strength and I think we got a ballpark that does that. We saw the reality tonight.”
Both starting pitchers for ASU and Notre Dame did not make it out of the fourth inning. ASU’s Boyd Vander Kooi had an underwhelming first start as a sophomore. He threw three and two-thirds innings while allowing five earned runs and striking out three batters on 72 pitches. Vander Kooi also threw two wild pitches in the third inning with one of those wild pitches bringing home a run for the Irish.
“We have not seen that all spring,” Smith said. “He is trying to maybe do too much. The good part was his team picked him up tonight, he can get that out of his system and next time he will be better.
Notre Dame’s southpaw Cameron Brown also struggled out of the gate, allowing three runs in the first inning and four runs in total on seven hits in three and two-thirds innings. He struck out five ASU hitters on 74 pitches.
The Devils will look to complete a three game sweep of the Fighting Irish tomorrow afternoon. Aldrete knows the team would love to keep the momentum going heading into Sunday.
“Tomorrow is going to be a true test of our maturity as a team,” Aldrete said. “A sweep is a lot better than taking a series, especially when you start off a season.”
First pitch is at 12:30 p.m. from Phoenix Municipal Stadium with sophomore transfer RJ Dabovich slated to get his first start as Sun Devil.
