ASU Baseball: Sun Devils look to get back on track vs. USC

ASU baseball approaches a key three-game series to regain their footing in the Pac-12 standings against USC at home starting on Friday.

The Sun Devil’s roller coaster season is at a low point with the Devils having lost seven of their last nine games. They have lost their last two Pac-12 series 2-1 each against UCLA and Washington State. They sit at 13-16, 5-4 in conference play which has them in fifth place.

A few plays going differently and the Sun Devils are in a whole other situation. ASU’s last four losses have been by one run each and five of their last six losses were by just one run. Three of their last six losses came in extra innings.

USC comes in with a 14-11 record, though just 3-6 in Pac-12 play. Their last two conference series have not gone their way, being blown out in three straight games against first-place Stanford and losing two of three to Washington at home.

They did defeat Cal State Fullerton, a team that beat the Devils twice this past week, 3-1 on March 27.

Statistically, ASU overpowers USC in batting average .292-.244, slugging percentage .436-.347 and on base percentage .362-.335. The Devils have scored over 50 more runs than the Trojans in four extra games.

However, Arizona State outranked WSU and Fullerton in those categories and they lost four out of five games against those two opponents.

The key for the Devils is cutting down mistakes on defense. In their two games against Fullerton, they committed five errors resulting in five unearned runs. Both games ended with the Devils losing by one. Without those errors, ASU probably wins one or both of those contests.

Arizona State leads the Pac-12 in errors by a wide margin. They’ve committed 43 of them while second on that list is Oregon, a team with 32 errors.

USC has the second-best fielding percentage in the conference at .981. They are a team that doesn’t beat themselves on defense, so it will be vital that ASU doesn’t let errors dictate another series.

After ASU’s first loss against Cal State Fullerton, pitcher Dellan Raish said, “Defense is key, make the plays behind the pitchers, we’ll win the game.”

The story on the mound for the Devils this weekend is a bit up in the air.

Head Coach Tracy Smith said that starter Boyd Vander Kooi will be most likely unavailable. Sam Romero and Brady Corrigan received starts in the midweek games against Fullerton. Eli Lingos and Alec Marsh will certainly get their starts, but the third game is seemingly questionable.

Next: ASU Baseball: Sun Devils suffer second straight loss to Cal State Fullerton

Romero threw on Tuesday of this week, so perhaps he will be rested enough to throw a Sunday game. Junior Fitz Stadler has started two games this season and only threw one inning on Wednesday, so he could be another option for coach Smith.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.