(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Arizona State’s past week has seen its peaks and valleys. The Sun Devils’ start to conference play could not have been much better, as they swept Oregon in a three-game-series, but then embarrassingly lost Tuesday to No. 24 UNLV.
The Devils crossed home plate 31 times over the weekend series, highlighted by an 18-4 clobbering in the second game on St. Patrick’s Day.
Gage Canning caught national attention after his impressive weekend. He was not just named the Pac-12 player of the week, but also the collegiate baseball magazine national player of the week.
In the three game set, he went 10-13 with seven runs batted in and eight runs scored, along with an inside of the park home run Saturday night.
Coming off the weekend energy, ASU did not look sharp against UNLV. As they seemed to do everything right this weekend, the Devils seemed to do everything wrong in their 10-3 loss. They left nine men on base on the offensive side, and the pitchers issued walks like the stat was going out of style.
Conference play continues this weekend as they take on No. 17 UCLA in Westwood. The Bruins are shooting off a conference sweep as well, as they edged out Washington State in three competitive matchups.
Despite losing to USC in the Dodger Stadium Classic, the men in blue have had a masterful season. They bursted to a 10-2 start, with victories over Cal State Fullerton, Michigan State and Baylor.
The pitching tandem of Jake Bird and Zach Pettway will be a tough test for the young Sun Devil lineup.
In Pettway’s 32.1 innings of work so far, he has struck out 28 opposing hitters and given up just 9 runs. The freshman will likely take the mound for the sixth time this season Saturday.
The UCLA pitching staff is not inexperienced, however. Senior right-hander ace Jake Bird has been nearly perfect this year. He holds a 0.86 ERA, and has given up just three earned runs in six quality starts this year.
With Arizona State coming off their best offensive performance of 2018 this past weekend, the matchup with the Bruin arms should prove for competitive play.
Game one will begin Friday night at 7 p.m. PST Friday night.
