(Photo: Nickolas Montei/WCSN)
After dropping two straight series against in-conference opponents, Arizona State baseball headed into last week’s slate desperately needing to right the ship. What the Sun Devils came away with was yet another mixed bag of results.
ASU opened up by navigating around a rain delay to take two out of three games at home against Texas Tech over the weekend. However, the team’s struggles on the road continued when five different arms out of the bullpen couldn’t get the job done in a 7-6 loss at Grand Canyon on Tuesday.
Four weeks remain in the 2025 season, meaning that the Sun Devils need to build consistent momentum now more than ever. An upcoming litmus test for Arizona State (25-16, 11-7 Big 12) makes its way to the Valley in the form of a three-game series versus BYU (20-18, 6-12 Big 12) in Phoenix.
The 2025 Big 12 Preseason Poll picked the Cougars to finish last in the conference, and thus far, they’ve struggled to shed such a billing. Fourth-year manager Trent Pratt is trying to avoid suffering his third straight losing season, but Big 12 play has not been kind to BYU, who has lost five of its first six series against in-conference competition.
That being said, the Cougars have also only been swept once in that timeframe. The team is 4-2 in Big 12 series openers on the way to picking up wins against Cincinnati, No. 23 West Virginia, and No. 22 Arizona.
If there’s any hope for BYU to pull off the upset, it will hinge on what happens in the batter’s box. The Cougars offer a good mix of power and especially contact in their bats, matching ASU’s season-long home run tally of 49 and amounting to more total hits than No. 1 Texas.
The team’s three-hole and cleanup hitters junior second baseman Luke Anderson and redshirt senior first baseman Cooper Vest are the perfect example of the offense’s hit-first approach. Anderson may be the most well-rounded bat BYU has to offer, hitting .325 on a team-leading 51 hits and 7 home runs to drive in 42 RBI. On the other hand, Vest is firmly in contention for the best power hitter in the conference. His 13 home runs, 45 RBIs, and 1.061 OPS not only lead the team in each category but rank top ten within the Big 12.
Going all out for contact comes with the drawback of struggling to get runners on base to the tune of a lowly 1.38 strikeout-to-walk ratio. As a result, the Cougars’ offense lives and dies by putting the ball either into the field of play or over the fence.
What will end up determining the result of this series is how much ASU takes advantage of BYU’s substandard pitching staff. In the exact opposite fashion of the batting order, the problem on the mound is allowing too many runners on base. The Cougars allow 4.18 walks per game and 10.21 hits per nine innings to add up to a 1.71 WHIP, the 15th worst in the country.
BYU also has a combined ERA of 6.72 with Texas Tech being the only team with a worse total in the conference. The lowest ERA out of the team’s three starters — senior righty Jaden Harris, redshirt sophomore righty Payton Gubler, and junior righty Garrison Sumner —- is Gubler’s 5.75. Outside of veteran arms like junior Ashton Johnson and seniors Jake Porter and Hayden Coon, the bullpen is just as ineffective.
In many ways, the Cougars and the Sun Devils share a striking resemblance. Both teams have potent bats that can produce runs at will through sheer contact, but ultimately whether or not the pitching steps up determines the outcome of games. What separates the two is most of the pressure coming into this series lies at the feet of ASU.
With under a month remaining in the season, Arizona State sits in fifth place in the Big 12 standings and three games out of the top spot. None of the Sun Devils’ four remaining in-conference opponents are currently above seventh place. The next four weeks will be a prime opportunity for ASU to push toward a top seed within the conference, but it’ll have to start against a BYU squad that has proven it won’t go down without a fight.
First pitch between the Sun Devils and Cougars is set for 6:30 p.m. MST Thursday.
