(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
For Arizona State baseball, in addition to a 4-0 start to the season, the offensive outbursts have been the story of the team. The offense has scored over ten runs in every game with a collective total of 58 runs. 2018’s team only put up 28 runs in its first four games.
Despite a slow start and notching only one hit through the first four innings against the University of San Diego on Wednesday night, sometimes all it takes is one huge inning to blow an opponent out.
On Wednesday night, the sputtering offense hit around the lineup in an eight-run 5th inning to put away the Toreros by a final of 12-2. It’s hard to predict when ASU’s offense will break through at times but when they explode, opposing pitching is in for a long night.
With great hitting comes another test for ASU. Up next for the Devils is a three-game weekend home-stand against UC Davis. ASU last played UC Davis in 2016, sweeping the Aggies in three games but two of those wins came in extra innings. The three-game series versus the Aggies will be the fifth, sixth and seventh out of eleven home games before the Devils finally hit the road for the first time this season against Cal State Fullerton on March 5-6.
UC Davis comes into this series with a record of 3-1, having swept Northern Colorado with lopsided scores last weekend, but lost on Tuesday to Nevada 5-4 after blowing a two-run lead in the ninth inning. In a Big West conference dominated by Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly, and UC Irvine, UC Davis struggled in 2018, finishing 8th out of 9 teams in the conference with a 9-15 conference record and 18-35 overall. This year for the Aggies will not be any easier as they lost one of their best starting pitchers as well as two of their top four hitters from last year.
The Aggies will be led by sophomore shortstop Tanner Murphy, junior catcher Logan Denholm and senior infielder Caleb Van Blake, to name a few. Murphy earned Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year honors in 2018 and despite a slow start to the season (.214 batting average), he is a player the Devils will have to keep an eye on this weekend. Denholm leads the Aggies with eight RBI and Van Blake is another returner who had a solid 2018 campaign (.264, 35 R, 5 HR, 32 RBI).
Despite an Aggies pitching staff that did well versus Northern Colorado, it will surely be tested against a red-hot ASU offense. Look for the Aggies to potentially bring out its three starting pitchers from last weekend’s slate versus Northern Colorado into this weekend. Friday’s probable starter is sophomore right hander Brett Erwin, who earned All-Big West Conference Honorable Mention in 2018 while Sunday will bring left hander Chris Brown, who earned Big West Player of the Week honors after throwing seven scoreless innings and picking up the win in his first start of the season.
ASU will once again bring out its rotation of Alec Marsh, Boyd Vander Kooi, and RJ Dabovich for this series. Marsh will hope to continue his success after a fantastic first start while Vander Kooi and Dabovich will look to improve after an up and down first start for both pitchers.
First pitch for Friday and Saturday’s games are at 6:30 pm and Sunday’s game will start at 12:30 pm.
