ASU Baseball: Undefined roles loom as season opens against Sacramento State

(Photo: Jessica Carnivale/WCSN)

Arizona State Baseball will begin its quest for Omaha and the College World Series on Friday as it hosts the Sacramento State Hornets in the first of a three-game series to open up the 2021 season.

The new season brings a lot of unknowns, and not all are due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ASU’s lineup is still a puzzle heading into the first game as both ASU Head Coach Tracy Smith and Associated Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Ben Greenspan have spoken about the competition for starting spots all over the diamond. The lone-known starter is redshirt junior Drew Swift at shortstop with the other seven positions up for grabs.

The Sun Devils will do a lot of experimenting with positions around the diamond through the first few weeks of the season. Redshirt freshman infielder Nate Baez and freshman infielder Hunter Haas have shown to be the contenders for getting the starts at third and first base.

If Haas gets the nod at third, Baez would also be in the picture for first. Freshman infielder Jack Moss was also mentioned as a potential first-base option for the Sun Devils along with redshirt junior outfielder Allbry Major, but Greenspan says Major is likely to start in the outfield early in the season.

“I think there are a lot of different ways the lineup could go based on offense-defense matchups and what works best that particular day,” Greenspan said.

In the outfield, Greenspan sees it shaping up to be Major in left, redshirt freshman infielder Joe Lampe in center, and redshirt freshman two-way player Kai Murphy in right. Greenspan had high praise when speaking about Lampe on Wednesday.

“What he’s done defensively has been pretty special,” Greenspan said. “When I coach third in the intra-squads and he’s in center field, he gets to the baseball so quickly even when it’s on the ground that he limits first-to-thirds based on the steep angles he takes, so he’s really separated himself in my eyes as a polished center-fielder.”

While Murphy and Major were the names mentioned as the most likely to start Friday, Greenspan also said to look for multiple guys playing the corner outfield spots throughout the weekend. Redshirt junior outfielder Hunter Jump and freshman outfielder Kade Higgins could likely be in the lineup at some point during the series. Smith stated Jump was the likely candidate to start at designated hitter on Friday.

Smith also announced that redshirt freshman Cooper Benson will get the start on the mound on Friday. He posted a 3.60 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 20 innings pitched last season. Beyond the opener, the rotation will be determined week-to-week but Smith hopes to have it set by the time conference play rolls around.

Switching to the bullpen, Smith is not committed to roles for various spots, but rather letting them play it out themselves.

“I think you use the preseason as a setup to put guys in position to win a job as an everyday closer, starter or whatever role is out there,” Smith said. “We’re going to let these first few weekends help us formulate everything going forward. There are a lot of roles yet to be defined but we have some pretty good options.”

For Sacramento State, it is the seventh time in nine years it will open up against a Power-Five opponent. Its original opening series scheduled to be against UC Santa Barbara was cancelled in January.

Since 2011, the Hornets have faced a Pac-12 opponent 42 times, posting a record of 17-25 in those contests. The last time Sacramento State took on ASU was in the 2014 NCAA Regional, claiming a 5-4 victory against then No. 18 ranked Sun Devils.

Senior right-hander Scott Randall was one of three Sacramento State players named to Perfect Game’s preseason all-Western Athletic Conference team. Last season, he went 2-1 with a 1.75 ERA, and in 25.2 innings of work, he struck out 23 batters while walking just one. His 23:1 strikeout to walk ratio was fifth in the nation among all pitchers last season.

Senior outfielder Matt Smith played all 16 games last season, hit three home runs and had a .414 on-base percentage while slugging .526. Smith was named to Perfect Game’s preseason all-Western Athletic Conference team as well.

Sacramento State went 9-7 in the shortened 2020 season with its final game played on March 10, which resulted in a 12-4 loss to San Francisco.

First pitch between ASU and Sacramento State on Friday is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. MST.