ASU baseball wrapped up their season-opening four-game series splitting four games with Miami (OH) winning 11-1 in game one and losing 16-8 in game two.
Arizona State split their second doubleheader in two days against Miami University on Sunday.
Game one went about as well for ASU as they could’ve hoped. They won the game 11-1, with the mercy rule being put in effect during the Sun Devils’ five-run seventh inning.
Freshman pitcher Boyd Vander Kooi received his first college start and showed why he was Arizona’s Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Arizona last season.
Vander Kooi threw a complete game (seven innings) allowing just one run and no earned runs. He also struck out five hitters with just two walks, a welcome sight to see from a team that had major issues with walks all of last season. The Devils were tied second-to-last in that category in their conference last season.
Vander Kooi threw 66.3 percent strikes and started at-bats with strikes 20 out of 26 times. His ability to spot fastballs created a lot of quick groundouts and enabled him to keep his pitch count down throwing just 83 pitches in seven innings of work.
Freshman Spencer Torkelson hit his third home run in his third game for ASU. The Devils would knock eight hits in game one and capitalize on four Miami errors.
The second game didn’t start off as well. Lyle Lin did drive in a run in the bottom of the first, but the second inning was a nightmare for the Sun Devils.
Miami scored eight runs topped off by a grand slam by sophomore Landon Stephens. Freshman Brady Corrigan gave up the eight, but had just three earned runs as a couple of errors didn’t help his cause.
“The defense piece, we feel like it will be a strong piece for us…that’s my biggest disappointment,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “That’s not what we’ve been doing. We were uptight and we tried to do too much.”
The Sun Devils would bring the score back within three after scoring three runs off of wild pitches in the sixth inning. That would be the closest they get though.
Miami scored three runs in the seventh inning and four in the ninth. They won the game 16-8, successfully splitting the series with ASU at two apiece.
Miami capitalized on their opportunities much better in game two hitting just 1-for-7 with runners on base in the morning, but hit .414 in the afternoon game.
Next: ASU Baseball: Lack of hitting with runners in scoring position a possible red flag
The Sun Devils will play the Arizona Diamondbacks in an exhibition Wednesday before resuming the season Friday with a three-game series versus St. Mary’s.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.