(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
The hole that the Arizona State baseball team has dug itself in the Pac-12 standings will take a complete turnaround effort to be dug out of.
Saturday night’s game against the Utah Utes was potentially a glimpse as to how difficult the road ahead will be, as the Sun Devils overcame mental errors and a sub-par outing by starting pitcher Sam Romero en route to a 15-7 win.
Romero couldn’t make it out of the third inning as the Sun Devils engaged in a see-saw affair against Utes starter Tanner Thomas, allowing five runs while walking three and allowing three hits.
“It wasn’t the sharpest outing by [Romero], but we’ve been asking him to do something he’s probably not more set up to do when we drew this thing up in the off-season,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “We know that he’s going to compete, we know he’s going to throw multiple pitches in the zone, he just didn’t have it tonight.”
Mental mistakes continued to plague the young Devils as they have all season, as shortstop Drew Swift committed his eighth and ninth errors of the season, the latter leading to an unearned run in the top of the third.
Chaz Montoya also balked home a run in the third inning after being brought on in relief of Romero.
Despite the lapses in judgement that have cost the Sun Devils dearly in games gone by this season, Smith still has the utmost confidence in his nine players on the field on any given night.
“Drew Swift could make five errors in a row and I’d still sit in here and tell you, ‘That’s one of the best shortstops in the country.’ So I don’t worry about that with him,” Smith said. “This team just needs to learn how to win. Another step in the right direction tonight.”
Fortunately for Smith his offense was up to the task of atoning their miscues in the field, with four Sun Devils having multiple RBI. Thomas was chased after three innings-plus, allowing six runs on five hits while hitting three batters.
The man who relieved Thomas, senior left-hander Josh Lapiana, didn’t fare much better. After allowing a two-run double to Carter Aldrete and an RBI triple to Gage Workman in the fourth allowed ASU to regain the lead 7-6, the Devils opened up their lead in the fifth.
Spencer Torkelson launched his NCAA-leading 19th home run of the season, a two-run shot, followed immediately by Gage Canning’s sixth of 2018. Torkelson’s home run was immediately preceded by a lengthy eight-pitch at-bat from Swift, who was able to reach on a fielder’s choice.
Swift, along with Hunter Jump and Alika Williams at the bottom of the Sun Devil order combined went 8-12 with six RBI tonight. Swift prides himself on being able to be a force at the bottom of the order and be able to flip the lineup consistently.
“That’s my role, to get it to the top of the lineup,” Swift said. “I think that [Smith] having us at the bottom of the lineup is big because it’s just good to have hitters that can hit in front of Torkelson and in front Canning, who can get on base and do their own thing.”
Apart from the offensive outburst, a bright spot for ASU has to be the performance of Chaz Montoya, who coming into the game had lost four of his previous five appearances. The sophomore bridged the middle innings nicely for Smith, finishing with 3.2 innings, allowing three hits and two runs (one earned) while striking out three.
“Just having that confidence that I had at the beginning of the year, I feel like I went back to that a little bit tonight,” Montoya said. “I know things haven’t really gone my way the past few outings, getting hit around a little bit. But I think I had it today, I felt good and it showed.”
Having already clinched the series win Arizona State will be going for their second sweep of Pac-12 play on Sunday afternoon, a sweep that would pull their record to an even 9-9 in conference thus far.
