ASU Baseball: Sun Devils push their way above .500 thanks to high-powered offense

Photo: Nicholas Badders (WCSN)

The Arizona State baseball team traveled to Malibu for a midweek showdown against Pepperdine on Tuesday, with hopes of lifting their record back above the .500 threshold.

Head coach Tracy Smith’s squad overcame a five-run fourth inning by the Waves in an offensive slugfest to prevail 10-7, thanks to an offensive clinic put on by a handful of Sun Devils.

Arizona State (7-6) struck first in the opening frame on an RBI single from freshman sensation Spencer Torkelson, bringing home Gage Canning who had tripled to lead off the game.

With his first inning knock, the 20th triple of his Sun Devil career, Canning climbed his way up to fifth on the all-time triples list in Tempe. He leads all active Division I players in triples this season with six.

Carter Aldrete contributed heavily as well, checking in with a two-run single in the top of the third inning. Aldrete had recorded just one hit in twenty at-bats in the six games prior to the Oklahoma State series this past weekend. After Tuesday’s contest the sophomore has now racked up multi-hit games in three of the last four games.

The Sun Devils plated five runs in the third inning, with a Drew Swift bases-loaded walk and a two-run single by Hunter Bishop ballooning the score to 7-2.

The Arizona State pitching continued to struggle however, as Pepperdine (5-8) responded by plating five runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth.

Fitz Stadler got the start for Smith, but was not particularly sharp, lasting just three innings while allowing five earned runs on four hits while walking three.

Stadler was doomed when he allowed two walks and a single to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning, giving way to Connor Higgins. Higgins surrendered a grand slam to the first batter he faced, Aharon Modlin, cutting the score to just 7-6 in favor of ASU. Jordan Qsar would register an RBI single later in the inning against Higgins to even the score at seven.

The Sun Devils bounced right back in their half of the fifth inning, with an RBI double from Bishop and an RBI single from Canning putting them back in front 9-7.

Bishop turned in his best game thus far in 2018, going 2-4 with three RBI. He came into the game hitting just .158 through his first 12 games of the season.

The scoring stagnated until the top of the eighth, when Torkelson continued his red-hot introduction to college baseball. He deposited one over the wall in center field with the bases empty to make the score 10-7 ASU.

It marked Torkelson’s eighth long ball of the season, which currently leads the country. His 2-5 performance with two runs scored comes on the heels of being named Pac-12 Player of the Week.

Higgins picked up his first win of the year, in relief of Stadler as he finished with 2.1 innings, allowing three hits and two runs, settling down nicely after the fourth inning.

Ryan Hingst, Dellan Raish and Chaz Montoya followed Higgins out of the bullpen and slammed the door on the Waves, allowing just two baserunners combined over the final 3.1 innings. Montoya worked around a hit batsmen in the ninth inning to register his third save.

Having won three of their last four, Arizona State will come home this Friday to face UNC-Wilmington for a three-game series, their final weekend series before the start of Pac-12 play. First pitch for Friday and Saturday is slated for 6:30 p.m, with Sunday set to begin at 12:30 PM.