(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Drew Swift stood on second base in the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday afternoon, waiting, watching and listening for the crack of the bat that could score him.
The count was 2-1, UC Davis’s starter Brett Erwin, who had dominated the Sun Devils all morning long, wound up, kicked his leg and delivered a fastball to Spencer Torkelson. He did not miss, smacking the pitch right back up the middle. Swift, gears turning and in a head down sprint, took off, kicking back the dirt on the Phoenix Municipal Stadium infield and raced toward home plate to score the Devils’ first run.
It did not give Arizona State the lead. The score was 2-1 in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader. But, even with ASU still trailing, the run gave the Devils momentum they would never let go of.
“There is no doubt in anybody’s mind on our team that we are going to hit during a game,” starter Alec Marsh said. “We never thought we were losing.”
Myles Denson, who sat next to Marsh during the post-game press conference added without prompt, “There was never any panic at all. We were always going to win that game. It was just a matter of when we were going to throw the runs up.”
Game one went as such. The same Devils that had scored 58 runs in their first four games of the season did not see a run on the scoreboard until that bottom of the sixth Torkelson RBI. UC Davis’s pitching was dominant and their batting gave them the lead.
But, where another team may panic, ASU stayed cool, calm and collected, simply waiting for their chance to tie the game.
They did that.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Torkelson again knocked in a run, this time scoring Dusty Garcia from second base.
The Devils not only tied the game but they went on to win the opening contest against UC Davis. Alec Marsh pitched eight innings of “…not even (his) best stuff,” and Erik Tolman came out of the bullpen to earn the Devils first save of the year, a peek into what would be a day of great relief pitching.
“When the lights are on he seems to notch it up a little bit,” head coach Tracy Smith said on Tolman. “He did that tonight.”
Thus, ASU stayed undefeated. They won the first game of the doubleheader and captured momentum. It worked as a gut punch and a wake-up call. For the Aggies, a firm blow to the stomach, quelling their hopes to steal a game from the scorching hot Sun Devils. For Arizona State, a wake-up call, a charge in the bats and a return to what the offense has done best in 2019- score runs. And lots of them.
Game two was a breath not necessarily of fresh air but of the past week. By the end of the fourth inning, ASU led the Aggies 6-2. Hunter Bishop hit his second home run of the year and the momentum gathered up in the latter third of the first game carried over into the second game.
The bottom of the fifth was the straw that broke UC Davis’s back. ASU piled on seven runs in the inning, punctuated by a Lyle Lin grand slam. It was the first ASU grand slam since Brian Serven in 2014.
“Lyle has been working really hard to get the ball in the air,” Smith said. “He’s bigger and stronger now.”
Perhaps ‘bigger and stronger’ can be said of ASU in general. Last year where they would have wasted a gem like that of Marsh’s, they came back and won a close game. Where they may have squandered momentum in a doubleheader, they capitalized on it.
“That’s one thing that makes our offense unique,” Smith said. “You have to work hard top to bottom. Our guys are a threat one through nine.”
ASU’s top to bottom lineup won both games on Saturday. The first one by a score of 3-2 and the second by a whopping 13-3.
Bigger and stronger, a threat one through nine and small but certainly mighty. ASU’s 27-man baseball roster is one of the smallest in Division 1 college baseball. But, with their 74 runs scored through six games, they have been one of the biggest producers. With momentum and a 6-0 start to the 2019 season, they could very well continue to do so.
Up next for the Devils is the series finale against the Aggies, with first pitch scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.
