ASU Baseball: Sun Devils use clutch hitting, timely base running to seal series win over Xavier

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, rewards teams the most for being opportunistic and not letting opportunities slip through their fingers.

Spencer Torkelson did just that on Saturday night, playing a part in Arizona State’s 8-3 victory over Xavier, their 14th consecutive win to begin 2019.

Xavier head coach Billy O’Conner has looked to limit the damage from Arizona State’s sophomore sensation by employing four outfielders whenever Torkelson has come to the plate this series.

“I wasn’t trying to think about the shift because that’s what they want you to do,” Torkelson said after the game. “When they shift like that they want you to try to change your swing, so I told myself, ‘You’re still trying to leave the yard right now, so it doesn’t matter.'”

After going 0-2 with a fly out and a strikeout, Torkelson came to the plate in the fifth with Sam Ferri on third and the game tied at three.

With O’Conner sending second baseman Ryan Altenberger into the outfield leaving a vast majority of the right side vacated, Torkelson bided his time and roped an 0-1 pitch directly into the empty space at second to score Ferri and give the Devils a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

“I knew he [struck me out] on this power changeup, so I knew he had that in the back of his arsenal if I got to two strikes, but I didn’t let him,” Torkelson said. “I told myself not to get to two strikes in that at-bat.”

“That’s why [Torkelson is] so good because they were working him away,” Sun Devil head coach Tracy Smith said. “I think a lot of guys in that scenario would try to yank the ball and try to man up against their manning up. I just think that’s a classic example of how good a hitter that kid is.”

The inning snowballed from there for the Sun Devils as Bishop singled behind Torkelson, followed by Lyle Lin doing the same for two runs, with Bishop taking an extra two bases and scoring on an error by Xavier center fielder Andrew Sexton.

Lin would advance to second on the error by Sexton, move to third on a failed pickoff attempt by Griffin Lanoue, and score four batters later on a passed ball to cap the four-run fifth.

ASU employs a tactic of keeping track of the “extra base” battle and views it as a crucial barometer of success in any given game whether it be tagging up from second on a deep fly ball to right or moving up 90 feet on an error by an outfielder.

“We’re really big on the 90 feet,” Smith said. “I think at one point I looked up early in the game and the opposition was up eight on us…the only way that we made that the positive side was the heads up base running by the guys.”

“If you can take the extra 90 feet on mistakes teams make, it’s gonna help you find a way to win a baseball game, or put you in the best position to win a baseball game.”

After Arizona State jumped out to a 3-0 first inning lead courtesy of a Hunter Bishop home run, a Carter Aldrete single and a Gage Workman double, Xavier clawed its way right back in the top of the second against Alec Marsh.

The Musketeers got on the board with a solo home run by Altenberger, followed by two runners scoring on a base hit to left field that scooted under the glove of Trevor Hauver and rolled all the way to the warning track to tie the game at three.

Despite the early setback, Marsh (4-0) continued to roll with the punches and finished the night with five innings pitched while allowing just one earned run on six hits with six strikeouts.

“He’s a guy that doesn’t let bad things affect him,” catcher Sam Ferri said postgame. “So he knows that if he doesn’t have his stuff, he’s going to be fine, he’s going to go out there and get outs, and that’s exactly what you saw tonight.

“He’s the leader of our pitching staff, and he sets a good example by stuff like that. Stuff goes bad, he comes in, figures it out and shuts it down.”

Marsh departed in favor of freshman left-hander Erik Tolman, who hurled three perfect innings before Sam Romero nailed down the final three outs to seal the victory and the fourth-straight series win for ASU.

They will go for their fourth-straight series sweep on Sunday afternoon when they send RJ Dabovich to the mound, looking to remain one of the three undefeated teams in Division I college baseball. However, if you ask anyone inside the Arizona State locker room, the winning streak that they have started the season on, the longest since starting 24-0 in 2010, doesn’t even enter their minds before every game.

“We have this thing, it’s always about where your feet are,” Ferri said. “So everyday when we step in the locker room it’s, ‘Where are our feet today?’ We don’t look forward, we don’t look backwards. I think that’s why we’ve been playing good baseball, for the most part. We’re just trying to be our best person that we can today and play where our feet are.”

Bobby Kraus is a baseball beat writer for the Walter Cronkite Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter @bobbykraus22.