ASU Baseball: Romero dazzles as Sun Devils take down Oklahoma State

Making his first career start as a Sun Devil Sam Romero picked up his first career win as he cruised through six innings of one-run baseball as ASU picked up the 9-1 win in the series opener.

Romero, a normal reliever started in place of Spencer Van Scoyoc who was the Friday starter for the first two series of the season. Van Scoyoc did see action in Wednesday’s game at Long Beach State where he faced just one batter who he walked.

“Everything was working, I felt like as the game was going on I was able to move where ever I wanted,” Romero said. “I had the feel for my slider and my change up was there the whole game.”

The Phoenix College transfer Romero gave up just five hits and two walks while striking out seven Cowboys.

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The Sun Devil offense helped Romero out right from the start as three straight hits from Gage Canning, Drew Swift and Lyle Lin helped the Devils jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first.

ASU struck for three more in the third thanks to Gage Workman who ripped the first of his two triples into the corner to drive in two. Trevor Hauver followed him with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 6-0.

“As these guys play more and as they understand the game more I think you’ll see the offense be even better,” head coach Tracy Smith said.

The Sun Devils had eight of the nine hitters in the starting lineup get a hit. Smith did say there was room for improvement as the team had 11 strikeouts.

“We need to cut down the strikeouts. We’re still striking out way too much and that will be a point of emphasis going forward but, I think we can be even better than we were tonight.”

ASU picked up one more in the fifth after Workman’s second triple, he then scored on a wild pitch. Red hot Spencer Torkelson then hit an RBI ground-rule double in the sixth to bring the score to 9-1 in favor of ASU and that’s how the scoring would end.

“I think tonight is a sneak peek of what’s to come this season,” Alika Williams said follwing a three hit game of his own.

Freshmen Dellan Raish and Brady Corrigan took over for Romero in the seventh and finished off the game. Raish threw two innings and gave up just one hit while striking out five, including four in a row at one point.

Next: ASU Baseball: Pitching falters as Sun Devils fall 16-4 to LBSU

Game two of the series is scheduled for a 6:30 pm MST first pitch as senior Eli Lingos (1-0, 4.63 ERA) is projected to get the start for the Sun Devils.

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