(Photo: Jessica Carnivale/WCSN)
Through two starts at ASU, starting pitcher Tyler Thornton is becoming what the team and fans were hoping for from the National Freshman of the Year in 2019.
The sophomore transfer from Saint Mary’s threw his second consecutive quality start, pitching six innings while allowing six hits, two earned runs, one walk, and five strikeouts as No. 13 Arizona State took game two of the three-game series from Boston College by a final score of 8-4.
Thornton, who pitched on Sunday vs Villanova and threw 6.2 innings while giving up one hit, three runs (two earned), three walks, and eight strikeouts in a no-decision, earned his first win as a Sun Devil tonight.
“I felt pretty good,” Thornton said. “I was just trying to stay in the zone, pounding fastballs until they proved they could hit it and it worked out pretty well today.”
Head coach Tracy Smith was glad to see his starter get the victory after the way he performed.
“I thought he did a really good job of commanding his fastball and just doing his job which was holding us close,” Smith said. “Every pitch he made was a big pitch because you’re in a one-run baseball game the whole time, and I thought he did a really good job of giving the offense time to fire up. I’m glad to see him get the win because he certainly pitched well enough.”
The only blemishes on Thornton’s night happened during the sixth inning when he gave up a solo home run to Sam Frelick and an RBI single to Luke Gold. Besides those hits, he mixed in his high 80s-low 90s fastball with deceptive off-speed stuff to keep the majority of Boston College hitters off balance throughout the night.
After Friday night’s ten-run outburst and another strong offensive performance on Saturday night, it took the offense some time to get going, but it’s fair to say that it is slowly but surely starting to find its rhythm at the plate.
Eight Sun Devils recorded at least one hit each, and the team now has 20 hits combined in both games vs Boston College after recording just 23 hits in the first five games.
“[It’s] simplifying things,” Spencer Torkelson said. “I think just changing our approach to ‘middle-middle line drives’ instead of lifting [the ball] like it looked like we were trying to do which you don’t need to do. The extra base hits come, but it’s just simplifying everything.”
The preseason national player of the year Torkelson launched his third home run of the year off the batter’s eye in the first while junior Hunter Jump hit his first home run of the season over the right-field wall in the sixth.
After collecting two hits, including his first homer of the year on Friday, Trevor Hauver came up clutch again with a two-run single to extend the lead in the sixth. The Devils would add another three runs in the seventh and eighth innings off a Nick Cheema RBI sac-fly, a wild pitch, and a Drew Swift RBI single.
In addition to Swift’s two hits, the usual second baseman played in center field from the sixth inning onward after Nate Baez pinch-hit for starting center fielder Seth Nager. As Smith continues to manage the team’s depth after injuries to outfielders Sean McLain and Dusty Garcia and catcher Sam Ferri early in the season, he is keeping an open mind in regards to moving Swift to the outfield and putting in Baez mid-game. Baez has become one of the first pinch-hitting options off the bench and can also catch behind the plate.
“We got two center fielders down right now, and hopefully we get one back soon,” Smith said. “When you don’t have a lot of options off the bench due to injury, you do what you got to do which is move your next guy out there.
“You’ll probably see [Swift out in center]. It’s not that we want to do it; it’s because we have to do it. But we have confidence in him out there and Baez plays a good second base.”
The Sun Devils will look to sweep the series Sunday afternoon as lefthander Justin Fall takes the hill for ASU. First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. MST from Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
