ASU baseball secured their first series win since mid-March Saturday as the offense exploded for 15 runs in an eight-run victory over Utah.
22 combined runs on 25 total hits, pitching seemingly did not matter in Phoenix on Saturday as Arizona State defeated Utah 15-7, the Sun Devils’ second highest scoring output of the season.
ASU hit .435 with runners on base and .438 with runners in scoring position. Every batter in the Sun Devil starting lineup picked up at least one hit. Arizona State also hit seven extra base hits.
The Sun Devil offense took advantage of opportunities early on.
Back-to-back batters were hit by pitches by Utah starter Tanner Thomas. Three straight singles then scored four runs and the score was 4-1.
ASU gave Utah those four runs back in the third, all earned runs off of Sam Romero. Romero’s past three starts have been productive as he had not allowed more than three runs in any of them.
Head coach Tracy Smith took out Romero after 2.2 innings, three earned runs and two runners on base. Romero had only thrown 46 pitches. Montoya, who has struggled mightily over the past month, let in both inherited runs, one coming off of a balk.
After giving up the lead, Smith talked about the players’ interactions with each other in the dugout.
“It was good to see guys say things to each other. You know you start to turn corners when players hold each other accountable,” Smith said
But ASU continued to take advantage of Utah’s struggling pitching staff. With a couple of runners on in the fourth, Carter Aldrete doubled to right field, scoring both runners. Two batters later, Gage Workman tripled, scoring Aldrete and giving the Sun Devils a 7-6 lead.
In the top of the fifth, ASU got some run support from familiar faces. Spencer Torkelson blasted his 19th home run, and Gage Canning followed that up with his sixth homer.
Tracy Smith when asked about Torkelson and batting him first in the order said, “I want him up at the plate as often as we can… He is level headed, all about throwing together good at-bats.”
The score was 10-6 after the two home runs. Saturday was the first time since March 17 that ASU scored double-digit runs.
Next: ASU Baseball: Sun Devils win late on back of bullpen, snap losing streak
Winning on Saturday meant that ASU had won their first Pac-12 series since sweeping Oregon in the first conference series of the season. The Devils improved to an 8-9 conference record and slide into sixth in the standings.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.