Devils in Detail
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ASU Baseball: The Devils have a tough test at No.1 TCU

By Jordan Kaye

Mar 3, 2015; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils pitcher Eli Lingos against the Arizona Diamondbacks during a spring training baseball game at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 3, 2015; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils pitcher Eli Lingos against the Arizona Diamondbacks during a spring training baseball game at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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ASU baseball (3-1) will look to rebound in a weekend series at No. 1 TCU (4-0) after an embarrassing loss to No. 22 Oklahoma State.

This will be ASU baseball’s first time playing TCU since they knocked out ASU last season in the NCAA regional.

After a matinee matchup with Oklahoma State on Tuesday, ASU may want to throw away every video and stat from that game. The Cowboys put on a hitting clinic as they scored whopping 18 runs.

The shocking thing from that game is that ASU threw nine pitchers and none could stop the bleeding. Zach Dixon had a solid start going 3 innings, allowing 2 earned runs, but most of the damage came from the late relievers.

Going into the sixth inning, it wasn’t too bad as ASU was only down 3-0; but the bullpen fell through, giving up 15 runs in four innings while using six pitchers. Not exactly what head coach Tracy Smith was looking for from what he believed was a deep pitching staff.

“We don’t feel like we have that top first-round guy coming out”, Skip said, “But what we do feel like, is that we have eight to ten guys that are all about the same, all about the same, but that being pretty good.”

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The bright spot for the Devils is their bullpen is very young and will hopefully get better with time. The five relievers, who gave up 15 runs in the last four innings, included three freshmen and two sophomores.

At the plate, the Sun Devils are leaning on the consistent offense of 1B Lyle Lin who is hitting .467 with seven hits. The freshman had played himself into the lineup with his hot bat, but with only 3 RBI’s, needs others to get on base.

Infielder Taylor Lane and DH Sebastian Zawada who both had high hopes in the Sun Devil lineup are both hitting under .200 with only 4 combined hits. ASU will need others to pick up the offense to give the young pitching staff more confidence.

The Sun Devils may get back CF Andrew Shaps this weekend from a suspension. Coach Smith held out Shaps for undisclosed reasons, but it didn’t seem like it would be a long-term suspension.

If they do get Shaps back for the number one team in the country, they will be getting back a junior who hit .321 last season with 68 hits and can be a major impact player in the middle of the lineup.

This series will be a big test for the young devils, who in their one game versus a ranked opponent looked awful. It should not be a disappointment if they don’t come out of Fort Worth with a win, but it will be disappointing if they aren’t in any games and aren’t showing fight at the end of games their losing.

Next: ASU Baseball: Oklahoma State Runs All Over ASU

In the first game on Friday, Arizona State will send their ace, junior Eli Lingos to the mound against the Horned Frogs senior Brian Howard. Howard gave up just three hits in six innings of work in his only start of the year. Lingos has almost identical stats, giving up three hits in 6.2 innings.

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