Eli Lingos was the star of ASU baseball‘s 6-1 victory over Oregon Sunday afternoon, as he threw 7.2 innings of one-run ball to help the Sun Devils earn a series sweep of the Ducks.
Lingos was great from the very beginning of the game, as he was able to keep the Ducks off of the scoreboard in the top of the first after a couple of errors by the ASU defense put him in an early jam.
Despite this, Lingos maintained his faith in the defense behind him, and they rewarded him the rest of the game.
“It wasn’t a confidence thing, it was more of just knowing that that stuff doesn’t happen often,” Lingos said when asked whether working out of the first inning jam gave him more confidence. “That’s a fluke and if you get through that inning, you know that there’s gonna be no more the rest of the game, which is pretty much what happened.”
After the first inning, Lingos went into cruise control. The only other time he ran into any sort of trouble was in the fourth inning, where Oregon manufactured a run with a base hit and a stolen base from third basemen Spencer Steer and a base hit by designated hitter Daniel Patzlaff to drive Steer in.
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Lingos was also very efficient, completing 7.2 innings with only 98 pitches thrown. He finished his outing with five hits allowed, four strikeouts, three walks and only one earned run charged to his name.
“I classify that as an Eli Lingos start right there,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “That’s just kind of what he does.”
ASU’s lineup picked up right where they left off after Saturday night’s 18-run performance, giving Lingos the run support he needed to pick up the win.
The Sun Devils jumped on Oregon starter Kolby Somers early, as Carter Aldrete drove in Gage Canning with an RBI single in the first to make the score 1-0 early.
ASU would tack on more runs in the third inning, as Aldrete and Taylor Lane both picked up RBI singles with two outs to give the Sun Devils a 3-0 lead.
The next inning would be the last for Somers, as he was lifted in favor of reliever Parker Kelly with one out in the fourth after giving up a single and a stolen base to Alika Williams.
Kelly could not keep Williams from scoring, however, as a squeeze bunt by Drew Swift brought the run home and made the score 4-1.
In the fifth inning, ASU once again rallied with two outs. After pinch hitter Hunter Bishop reached base with a single, Gage Workman dropped a ball between left fielder Evan Williams and shortstop Ryne Nelson, allowing Bishop to score after a throwing error by Nelson.
Williams would follow this with a base hit to right center, plating Workman and making the score 6-1, where it would stay for the rest of the game.
“I wanna make sure our guys understand that this isn’t a fluke,” Smith said. “This is who we are.”
This was the first time the Sun Devils swept a series this season, and they managed to do it against an Oregon team who had a 12-4 record coming in and had won six of their last seven games prior to Friday.
“It’s a huge confidence builder for our whole team,” Aldrete said. “We know we belong and we just proved it to ourselves this weekend, so hopefully we keep it rolling throughout the Pac.”
Next: ASU baseball: Gage Canning has been a superstar for ASU
ASU’s next game is on Tuesday when they take on a very good UNLV team. Alec Marsh will likely start that game for the Sun Devils, which starts at 6:30 p.m. PT at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.