ASU baseball returns home to face Utah in a three-game series with the Sun Devils looking to end a six-game losing streak.
Six straight losses. Four consecutive Pac-12 series losses. Multiple late blown leads.
Saying Arizona State is in a rut is not saying enough. The timidity that this team has been playing with over the last several weeks is apparent by the amount of costly errors and big innings given up in momentous parts of games.
ASU went from a promising 11-9 team to 14-22 over the last month and find themselves third from the bottom of the Pac-12 with a 6-9 conference record.
Starting on Friday the Sun Devils will begin a three-game set against the team sitting in last place in the Pac-12, the Utah Utes.
Utah comes into this series at 9-25, 5-9 in conference play.
After an abysmal 0-13 start, Utah has improved their play and even had a 7-4 stretch before last weekend when the Utes were swept at home by UCLA.
Utah’s glaring issue this season has been on the mound having allowed the most hits and runs in the conference this season. They rank 227th in the country in team ERA out of 297 division-one schools with a 5.74 ERA.
The Utes have given up five or more runs in seven straight games. Of their 13 pitchers with multiple innings pitched, two have an ERA under five.
But ASU’s pitching hasn’t looked good lately either. The Devils have given up 56 runs over the last six games with 24 earned runs coming from the bullpen over that stretch.
The three starters in last week’s series for the Devils were Alec Marsh, Sam Romero and Eli Lingos. Marsh and Romero went at least six innings with three earned runs each with Lingos having his worst start of the season, giving up five earned runs in six innings. The rotation will most likely stay the same against Utah.
Boyd Vander Kooi has not pitched since March 24 at UCLA. He is doubtful to return this weekend, but could be available after this series.
Gage Canning has slumped during the losing streak. The former National Player of the Week is 5-for-30 over that span. The Sun Devils have struggled scoring runs early in games recently. If Canning can heat up again, it could spark the entire offense as it did earlier in the year.
Next: ASU Baseball: Sun Devils allow nine runs in eighth to drop fifth straight
The Sun Devil defense will need to be cleaned up going forward if ASU wants to get out of this losing skid. They have committed nine errors over the past six games resulting in 12 unearned runs.