(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
The Arizona State baseball team looks to get back on track this weekend when it hosts Rhode Island in a non-conference series at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The Sun Devils are just 4-6 in their last 10 games as they are in the middle of their toughest stretch of the schedule to close out the regular season.
ASU dropped the final two games of its road trip to Utah, losing Sunday’s series finale against Utah in walk-off fashion and falling to BYU in Provo 8-5 on Tuesday.
The Sun Devils enjoy playing in front of the home crowd, sporting a 17-7 record in Phoenix this season. With no mid-week games next week, head coach Tracy Smith can afford to keep a tight grip on the bullpen and use whatever arms he would like. The already short-handed pitching staff has seen a bulk of the work come from eight pitchers this season.
Freshman infielder Ethan Long’s bat has certainly heated up at the right time for the Devils. He recorded eight hits in the four-game road trip with half of them being home runs, jumping him into the team lead in big flies with six ahead of redshirt freshman infielder Sean McLain’s five.
Rhode Island comes in with a record of 17-16-1 overall and 5-3 in conference play. Its lone tie was March 24 against Bryant where after playing just one extra inning, they settled for a 7-7 tie. This weekend will be the Rams farthest trip of the season after previous travel saw them go as far as North Carolina. Rhode Island is 7-14-1 on the road while winning 10 of 12 games at Bill Beck Field in Kingston.
The Rams come in winning six of their last eight games after taking three of four from UMass in two doubleheaders last weekend. Their likely Friday and Saturday starters this weekend, junior right-handed pitcher Ryan Twitchell and redshirt senior right-handed pitcher Mike Webb both sport sub-three ERAs on the season and have both thrown over 50 innings––which is more than any other Sun Devil has thrown so far this season.
In Twitchell’s previous start last Friday, he threw five innings, allowing five runs, two of them earned, on 96 pitches. He got some major relief from freshman right-handed pitcher Zach Fernandez who also threw five innings, allowed two runs, neither of them earned, allowing just two hits on 57 pitches getting the win 8-7 in 10 innings.
For Webb, he started game one of their Saturday doubleheader and dealt a complete game going the full seven innings, allowing six hits, three runs, struck out five and walked two. On the season, Webb is 4-0 with a 2.88 ERA in nine starts. Webb is Rhode Island’s most consistent strikeout pitcher but is not overpowering. In 59.1 innings of work, he’s set down 44 batters via the punch out. He has given up 54 hits and walked 19 so has danced in and out of trouble often. Twitchell also has had a solid season so far going 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA, also in nine starts. In 52 innings, he’s allowed 52 hits, struck out just 29 and walked 16.
Rhode Island’s three and four hitters have a very solid balance offensively. Its three hitter, redshirt senior catcher Sonny Ulliana, is hitting .327 with a .962 OPS, a .541 SLG and a .421 OBP to go with a pair of home runs. Their cleanup hitter is Xavier Vargas, who has a team-leading five home runs and 27 runs batted in. The power swing may make things all or nothing for the junior infielder as he’s second on the team with 32 strikeouts.
This will be Rhode Island’s final non-conference series before finishing up the season with Atlantic-10 series and a pair of non-conference midweek single games.
First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 6:35 p.m MST. All games will be streamed via the ASU Live Stream.
