ASU Baseball: Power outage didn’t stop Devils offense in 8-3 win
By Koki Riley
Six quality innings from Eli Lingos coupled with an eight-run outing at the plate was enough to tame the Tigers as ASU baseball splits series with Pacific.
Even with a stadium-wide power outage in the third inning, ASU baseball still bounced back on Monday night as the Sun Devils rode the offensive success of Gage Workman at the plate for an 8-3 home victory from Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
On the night, Workman led the ASU offense with three hits and three runs driven in which included a two-run single in the fifth inning and an RBI double in the seventh.
The freshman phenom was not the only contributor at the plate as Carter Aldrete tacked on two runs himself to go along with the two-hit performances of Hunter Jump and Gage Canning.
Jump, who for the majority of the season was coming off of the bench for the Sun Devils, has not only found himself in the starting lineup for the Sun Devils, but became the leadoff hitter tonight for the first time all season as he rewarded head coach Tracy Smith’s trust with an RBI to go along with his two hits.
Pacific starting pitcher Cooper Casad was only able to go one inning for the Tigers as his run allowed in the first inning landed him the loss.
In relief of Casad, Pacific used six pitchers that combined to allow seven runs in eight innings of work.
The only relief appearance for Pacific that lasted more than one inning was from Lucas Sweany who went 2.2 innings in relief as the freshman lefty allowed two earned runs on only one hit in his outing for the Tigers.
At the plate the Tigers were unable to generate the type of offense that they displayed the night before as Sunday night’s 12-run outing was replaced by a weaker three-run effort against Eli Lingos and the Sun Devil staff.
A three-hit day from Nate Verlin was simply not enough for Pacific who could not quite figure out Lingos on the evening as the ASU lefty went six innings while surrendering only those three runs with four strikeouts and seven hits allowed.
Fitz Stadler, Sam Romero and Dellan Raish followed the senior with a combined three innings of scoreless relief.
Helping out the ASU pitching staff on the night was the ASU defense led by left fielder Hunter Bishop who robbed a home run in the eighth inning to keep the Sun Devils lead at four.
In addition to Bishop’s spectacular play, the Sun Devils did not have a single error on the night after committing four errors Sunday.
Next: ASU Baseball: Twelve runs too much to overcome in loss vs. Pacific
With the victory, the Sun Devils now improves their record to 21-28 on the season with only six games left to play on the season which includes three games against arch-rivals Arizona.