PHOENIX – There are not many baseball players in the world who draw comparisons to Major League Baseball’s top home run hitter, Barry Bonds. Especially not college baseball players.
This season, Arizona State sophomore left-fielder Landon Hairston has drawn not only those comparisons, but even the same treatment. Against New Mexico State on Wednesday, Hairston was intentionally walked three times.
It was as if opposing teams viewed him as an unstoppable, menacing supervillain.
After the loss on Wednesday, head coach Willie Bloomquist called upon his team to help support Hairston so that if teams wanted to skip the boss fight, they would still have to face a gauntlet of batters instead.
“We’ve got to put somebody to protect [Hairston] a little better,” Bloomquist said.
On Friday night, the No. 25 Sun Devils (29-14, 12-7 Big 12) answered Bloomquist’s call as they defeated Baylor (22-19, 9-10 Big 12) 11-2 in a game in which four different ASU players hit home runs. The series opening win came without Hairston’s usual exemplary performance, with the sophomore going just 1-for-5 on the night.
“Our hitters came out swinging against a really good arm,” Bloomquist said. “Our guys came out and were on time for the fastball. There were contributions up and down the lineup, which was big. There wasn’t one hero today.”
Without Hairston’s fiery bat, the Sun Devils offensive fireworks were sparked by a different sophomore in second baseman Beckett Zavorek. Zavorek has been in and out of the ASU lineup for much of the season and has struggled on offense. Coming into Friday, the sophomore was batting .282 with just a single home run on the year.
However, Friday was Zavorek’s night in the spotlight.
Zavorek launched two home runs over the Phoenix Municipal Stadium wall for the first multi-home run game of his career. After getting many reps down the stretch last season, Zavorek seems primed to have a similar role to help boost the bottom of the Sun Devil lineup
“He’s been working hard,” Bloomquist said. “We’ve had some guys that are not as locked in as they would like to be on the offensive side, and all you can do is continue working. The biggest thing for him is getting back to the simplicity of hitting with a good, solid foundation.”
Joining Zavorek on Friday was a plethora of Sun Devil hitters, including redshirt junior designated hitter Nu’u Contrades. Contrades was moved up to the second spot in the ASU lineup as a way to scare teams into not intentionally walking Hairston, given Contrades’ .359 batting average.
Contrades added his 12th home run of the season, giving Bloomquist exactly the type of hitting he requested behind Hairston.
“We know they are all capable,” Bloomquist said. “It’s just a matter of finding the right mix and putting them in the right spots. Sometimes that’s a tricky thing to do, finding who’s going to be that guy behind [Hairston]. You want to keep your lineup lengthened out as much as possible.”
Bloomquist has been moving pieces up and down the lineup for much of the season, whether it was Contrades moving up to second, or junior shortstop PJ Moutzouridis being pushed from second all the way down to the ninth spot, all in hopes of giving more balance to a lineup with a clear superstar.
“When Landon is swinging the bat the way he is,” Bloomquist said. “They’re not going to pitch to him. We have to put some thump behind him to make them at least think. If they are going to put him on, they are in for a potential big crooked number with the guys behind him.”
An additional piece that Bloomquist believes can help lift the Sun Devil offense is redshirt junior designated hitter Garrett Michel, who has not featured much in recent games. The junior has been designated hitting for most of the season, but has seen his role falter, given Contrades’s dealing with a hamstring issue.
Even with Michel out of the starting lineup, Bloomquist made it a point to get him into the game, having Michel, who is batting .303 on the year, pinch hit in the fifth inning. With a postseason run looming, the Sun Devils will want to ensure that all of their cards are ready to be played if called upon.
“Bottom line, we are rotating that spot right now,” Bloomquist said. “Guys are getting opportunities. We have to keep Garrett Michel as sharp as we can. He’s not getting a lot of at-bats here as of late, simply because Nu’u is DHing.”
After all of the rotations along with mixing and matching lineups, ASU seems to have found a recipe for spreading the offensive success throughout the whole lineup. With six different Sun Devils, none of whom was Hairston, recording a multi-hit game on Friday, they will look to continue to provide the offensive support needed to keep teams from skipping over the main attraction.
“That’s what this lineup is capable of,” Bloomquist said. “They can beat you with the long ball and beat you with 1,000 cuts, too, if things are going well. Home runs are a result of a continuous, good approach and good swings. Do we have home run hitters? Yeah, we have kids who can put the ball in seats, but we don’t go up there thinking about a home run.”
After Friday’s “Sinister Six” hitting performance, the Sun Devils will look to turn their newfound balanced offense into a trend that takes them into postseason play. ASU will return to the field on Saturday for game two against Baylor at 6:35 p.m. MST at Muni.
“I told them that’s the standard,” Bloomquist said. “That’s my expectation. So, right, wrong, or indifferent, that is what I expect out of this team.”
