(Photo: Sarandon Raboin/WCSN)
The phrase Arizona State head coach Tracy Smith uses when referring to Hunter Jump returning to ASU after his one-year stint at Central Arizona Community College is “welcoming him with open arms.”
“He is no stranger to us,” Smith said after their 14-1 victory over Nebraska last Saturday night. “We need him. We need him to give us those quality at-bats in the middle of the order, especially if they are going to continue to walk Spencer [Torkelson] and even Trevor [Hauver].”
A quality at-bat is exactly what Jump gave his head coach in the bottom of the eighth against Fresno State reliever Nikoh Mitchell, knocking in the go-ahead run with a single up the middle to give No. 10 Arizona State a 4-3 victory in the series opener over Fresno State on Friday night.
When Jump was a freshman at ASU, the 5’11 outfielder could flat out hit. He hit .370 in 100 at-bats but then transferred to Central Arizona for his sophomore year, leading his team to a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I World Series title and earning World Series MVP honors.
Now that Jump is back with ASU and beginning to flourish, Smith has been excited to see him contribute.
“He’s a tough out,” Smith said after Friday’s game. “He just has a great mindset because he’s going to fight you to the very end and as you saw tonight, with two strikes, he ends up getting the big hit for us.
“I’ve said before people make decisions based on their information at the time and I don’t fault him for leaving but we sure did welcome him back and I’m glad he is back.”
Jump improved his hitting streak to six games with his run-scoring single and he is feeling his stroke in the batter’s box. He started off the season as the leadoff hitter but struggled a little bit and ended up moving to the middle of the order. A couple of adjustments here and there and he’s now recording timely hits for the Sun Devils.
“I think it’s come with experience,” Jump said. “The more games we’ve been playing and the more pitching we’ve seen has made us more comfortable. We’ve been able to settle down and go pitch-by-pitch, keep it simple and don’t do too much. I think it’s been more of a mental thing than physical.
“I’ve been in situations like that before. It’s not my first time. I try to keep it as simple as possible which is move the ball and get the guy in. It’s what we do in practice every day.”
Freshman Cooper Benson started for the Devils and continued his strong campaign as the Friday starter. The left-hander threw 5.2 innings, allowing six hits, two earned runs, and two walks while striking out nine in a no-decision.
Arizona State’s hottest hitter right now in Drew Swift cooled down a bit with a hitless performance but his two RBI sac-flies helped give ASU a 3-2 lead at the end of six innings. Fresno State tied the score in the seventh on a run-scoring double play and then in the home half is where things became tense.
Smith and first-base coach David Greer were both ejected from the game after they both argued with first-base umpire Brett Terry for calling Gage Workman out on a pickoff attempt.
“I don’t know. I thought he looked certainly safe there,” Smith said.
Jump said the ejection “lit a fire” in the team to go win the game for their head coach and Smith said it was great to see his players overcome the adversity.
“I like the way our guys responded and bounced back,” Smith said. “That’s what we’ve been able to do in the last handful of games is just pick each other up after bad things or not getting the result we wanted. We just keep plugging.”
The Sun Devils return Saturday night as Tyler Thornton will take the hill and look to continue his strong form with first pitch slated for 6:30 p.m from Phoenix Muni.
