The ASU baseball team took home the victory Sunday afternoon 6-2 over the Northwestern Wildcats to secure a sweep in a game with a time limit, ten combined pitching changes and rain always looming in the background.
Zane Strand started off the game for ASU baseball and the number one right-handed pitcher in Arizona last year threw two-thirds of an inning before he was forced to leave with discomfort in his throwing elbow.
“On the last pitch of the inning he was in he felt something in his elbow and didn’t say anything to anybody and next inning tried to go and the velocity was down.” Head coach Tracy Smith said regarding Strand. He will be examined more on Monday.
Reagan Todd came in to replace him and was stellar in his three innings of work racking up five strikeouts, three of which were looking.
“I think I was able to get my curveball over for a strike. That was one thing that we realized that Northwestern was taking a lot of off-speed pitches so if you’re able to throw that for a strike it gets you ahead in the count and I was always ahead in the count and I was able to get outs and have my defense work for me,” Todd said.
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The game flew by from the fourth inning on, as just one baserunner combined from either team reached base until the eighth when the Sun Devils offense exploded for four runs. Jeremy McCuin and Sam Ferri were the difference makers as they both had two-RBI doubles.
Ryan Lillard got the inning started off with a base hit back up the middle and a Taylor Lane walk brought up McCuin who had tripled in last night’s start of the game. McCuin drove the first pitch he saw into the left centerfield gap and brought in both Lillard and Lane.
“I was sitting slider honestly because Taylor was before me and saw four sliders and they were all balls, so I knew they were going to be coming off speed so I was sitting it and got it inside and crushed it,” McCuin said.
Myles Denson followed McCuin with a base hit of his own and Sam Ferri pinch hit and drove a double down the right field line to bring in two more runs and make the score 6-2.
“Sam is one of our best players,” Smith said. “In that situation, we felt like we still trying to get every run we could get to get and in my mind, Sam Ferri is one of our better hitters and that was the time to make that move.”
James Ryan closed out the game with a looking strikeout and the fifth straight one-two-three inning for the Devils as he picked up his first win of the season.
The Sun Devils pitching staff was solid all day long as the Wildcats didn’t have a baserunner reach after a Nick Paciorek base hit in the fourth inning.
“I was very pleased, I said the other day that we have eight to ten guys and there’s not a big difference between all of them, but they’re all pretty good and that’s a good option,” Smith said about the pitching today. He was upset with the walks early in the game that helped bring in the Wildcats lone run in today’s game.
“The runs today were a result of our walks and we have to cut that down, we’re walking too many people which is ironic because leading up to this weekend we weren’t walking anybody in the inter-squads and we’ll get that fixed and I think we’ll even be better.”
Next: ASU Baseball: Game 3 of Northwestern series postponed to Sunday afternoon
The Sun Devils are 3-0 now on the season following the sweep and head into a difficult week with a game against Oklahoma State at home on Tuesday before heading on the road to face number one TCU in Fort Worth starting on Friday.