ASU Baseball: Offense has been far from the problem

Pitching and defense have been reoccurring problems for ASU baseball so far this season, but offensively, Tracy Smith will not have to worry about his teams scoring output.

In what has so far been an extraordinarily disappointing season, ASU baseball has had a wide variety of reasons as to why they have struggled in 2018, but offense surely is not one of those reasons.

Although ASU’s pitching and defense has been sorely lacking, the Sun Devils offense is still fourth in the conference in batting average and are tied for third in home runs.

Tracy Smith’s squad this season has regularly had five freshman or more in the lineup and have consistently been able to produce.

Freshman Spencer Torkelson has already smashed the school freshman single-season record for home runs previously set by Barry Bonds with 20 long bombs.

In fact, Torkelson alone has hit more balls out of the ballpark than Oregon, Utah, Washington and Washington State this season as he leads the country in home runs this season.

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Although he has cooled off in recent weeks, center fielder Gage Canning still owns a .387 batting average on the season and his nine triples is more than all but four Pac-12 teams.

The stellar performances at the plate this season from Torkelson and Canning this season have not been the only highlights at the plate for ASU in 2018 as Lyle Lin, Gage Workman, Carter Aldrete and most recently Taylor Lane.

Lin this season as the Sun Devils catcher owns a .327 batting average as the sophomore backstop for ASU is tied for the team lead in doubles with 13 on the season.

Beside Lin in the lineup lately has been Carter Aldrete. The ASU infielder this season has been a staple in Smith’s lineup with a .287 batting average and a .374 on base percentage which is fourth on the team.

Although Aldrete and Lin are now in their sophomore seasons, fellow infielder Gage Workman as just a freshman this season is already sixth on the team in batting average the year.

Outside of the top five of the Sun Devils batting order, ASU has not gained any significant or consistent boosts from the bottom four of their order until recently as Taylor Lane has come off of the bench and into a starting role for ASU and has provided a spark for the Sun Devils order.

Without a question, the Sun Devils lineup has been able to produce runs throughout the season, but ASU have been unable to win games this season due to the team’s lack of defense and pitching.

ASU defensively has 13 more errors that the second-to-last team in the Pac-12 in that category and on the mound the Sun Devils are currently eighth in the conference in earned run average.

Next: ASU Baseball: Eli Lingos has become the ace that ASU needs

Tracy Smith’s squads problems are not at the plate this season, they’re on the mound and throughout the diamond.

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