ASU Baseball: Strong Start by Lingos Helps Carry Devils Past CSU Bakersfield

Eli Lingos pitches strong in 7.2 innings to capture his fifth win of the season; A big fifth inning is all ASU baseball needed offensively to clinch a second straight series victory.

Starting pitchers have struggled to keep their earned run totals down for the Sun Devils this year, most recently it was starter Chaz Montoya giving up six earned in the series opening win against CSU Bakersfield Friday. Saturday though, Eli Lingos experienced no such trouble.

“(Lingos) threw his off speed stuff for a strike early in the count,” said head coach Tracy Smith after the game, “when you can go do that ahead in the count with your secondary stuff… you’re going to be successful.”

The junior pitcher was able to locate his curveball and change-up for strikes throughout his 7.2 innings of work. This translated into the Roadrunner lineup falling behind in counts and not being able to open it up offensively. Lingos finished the game with two earned runs on six strikeouts and eight hits. Another impressive start by the junior ace from Temecula, California.

More from Devils in Detail

Sloppy defense has been a problem for the Sun Devils in close games. Routine plays just haven’t been made consistently, translating into costly runs in tight games the Devils end up losing.

Tonight an error by Lyle Lin on a close play at first in the fourth inning allowed for Sergio Robles to reach base. Robles would later come around to score on a Mahlik Jones single, giving the Roadrunners a 2-0 lead in the fourth. The Sun Devils defense finished with three errors tonight, that’s enough to usually cost a team the game. They will have to clean it up in order to win more conference games starting this week.

The ASU offense got runners on base early but struggled to get one across home in the first four innings. The bats woke up in the fifth. Zach Cerbo sent a ball into deep left-center field for a one-out double to get things going. Tyler Williams stepped up to the plate after Cerbo and knocked him in with a hard single to the left side, cutting the early Roadrunner lead to just one. A batter later, Jeremy McCuin laced a groundball right at the shortstop for a hit, bringing Williams around to score the tying run.

“Don’t make a mistake to Gage Canning,” was a smiling Carter Aldrete advise to opposing pitchers after the game. Aldrete was spot on.

Canning, riding a season-high ten-game hitting streak entering Saturday, hit a towering two-run home run to right field with two outs in the fifth to put the Sun Devils ahead 4-2. Canning spoke after the game on the home run ball saying that CSU Bakersfield’s pitcher, Andrew Hansen, threw him three straight fastballs for strikes. That was a critical mistake to a guy who is beyond hot this season. Now batting .349 with three home runs and 22 RBI’s in the leadoff spot, Canning is tough out for any pitcher he faces.

The Canning home run was the last score of the night by ASU, and it was enough. After the strong start by Lingos, sophomore Connor Higgins came in to get the four-out save and slam the door shut on the Roadrunners’ chances to come back.

“Offensively, defensively, pitching-wise, our confidence is starting to build a little bit, and that will really help us through the Pac-12,” said Lingos on what the past couple of series victories means for this team moving towards the tail end of the schedule.

Next: Chase Lucas Primed for Breakout for ASU Football

ASU (18-19, 5-10) will go for the series sweep of CSU Bakersfield (19-15, 6-6) tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at Phoenix Muni Stadium. The game can be seen live on the Pac-12 live stream.

Home/ASU Baseball