(Photo: Karli Matthias/WCSN)
The Sun Devils (19-0, 3-0 Pac-12) used the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day in a long-fought battle against Washington State (6-13, 0-3 Pac-12) and came away with a 6-5 victory.
However, ASU’s win over the Cougars may not have been the luckiest part; it was a loss on the other side of the country. Simultaneous with the Devils win, N.C. State lost to Florida State, leaving the Devils as the only Division 1 baseball team that is undefeated.
Although the team just tied their third-longest record to start a season of 19-0, this is just the beginning.
“We got a lot of baseball left to play and our mind set truly is we haven’t done anything yet,” said head coach Tracy Smith.
The team could not have a better record, but they are still looking to make improvements.
“We had a lot of mistakes, that’s the bad part of it,” said Smith. “We are not real happy about that, but with that said, when you can still do those things and still find a way to grind out a win it, tells you that you are learning how to win.”
ASU is still learning “how to win”, and with only a 25-man roster, the team has had to get creative with how to keep winning. In the final game against the Cougars, there were several changes in the lineup with sophomore Drew Swift back on the field.
Swift had recently missed 12 games due to a hamstring injury. However, he did not skip a beat helping the team with getting three hits and two RBIs.
“I was just ready to go back in and I couldn’t wait to get going, so I don’t think there was much of a transition,” said Swift.
Alika Williams also stepped up after having made an error in the first inning, he went 4-for-4 with two RBI and is now batting .400 for the Devils.
“I’ve been more comfortable at the plate,” Williams said. “That’s really the biggest thing, seeing more pitches, being able to lay off stuff in the dirt, and having confidence.”
“When they are getting it done with the gloves and then they can do that offensively at the latter end of our lineup, I think that’s what makes us a different team,” said Smith in reference to Swift and Williams.
The ASU bullpen gave up 11 hits to the Cougars after starting pitch RJ Dabovich was taken out after just 3.2 innings where he gave up six hits and three runs.
Erik Tolman was brought in to relieve Dabovich, and after Tolman struggled in his outing against Washington State the night before, Tolman came in and gave the Devils two scoreless innings which was enough for the win.
The Devils managed to get one more hit and one more run than the Cougars in the final game of the series, giving them their fifth sweep of the season.
“We are the team to beat,” Swift said.
With ASU baseball being the only team remaining undefeated they know they have a target on their back. However, they will continue to take it “game by game”.
The next time the Devils will be on the dirt is Wednesday, March 20, against California Baptist in Tempe.
