ASU Baseball: Sun Devils offense carries Dabovich in 17-2 victory

Another double-digit performance from ASU baseball’s offense should make fans wonder if there’s a pitching staff that can stop the Sun Devils’ attack.

At the conclusion of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Sun Devils had scored 13 runs in the second game alone. It was the fifth time in the six games in which ASU had placed double digits on the scoreboard.

And then Sunday happened.

By the end of the third inning, the Sun Devils had a 13-0 lead after scoring eight in the frame. Drew Swift, Trevor Hauver, Lyle Lin, Carter Aldrete and Gage Workman all drove in at least a run in the inning en route to ASU’s (7-0) 17-2 win over UC Davis (3-4) on Sunday afternoon.

“This lineup is pretty similar (to the 2013 Indiana lineup) in terms of the power and the hitting ability,” head coach Tracy Smith said following the win.

Hauver finished the afternoon with seven runs batted in and was a triple away from the cycle. Workman had three hits and Aldrete drove in three runs of his own.

ASU has scored a whopping 91 runs in seven games.

“Our mantra is strength in numbers,” Smith said. “And when we’re saying strength in numbers, we’re saying we’re stronger because we are smaller.”

Describing ASU baseball as “smaller” may be an understatement. The Sun Devils only have 25 active players including right-handed pitcher Colby Davis, who is currently injured.

But depth becomes less of an issue when your team’s starting pitching is performing at a high level. And for ASU, starting pitcher RJ Dabovich was rolling from start to finish in the righty’s second collegiate start of his career.

“(Dabovich was) our player of the game,” Smith said. “No matter what the score is you pitch like it is 1-0. I thought he did an excellent job of being dialed in no matter what the score was.”

The freshman surrendered just one earned run, walked a batter and allowed only four hits in seven innings pitched. In his first start, Dabovich had five walks in five innings pitched.

“Today was good,” Dabovich said. “I was attacking the zone. I was down in the zone. Fastball command. I was a lot better than I was last week.”

The Sun Devils host Pepperdine on Tuesday for a one game stand. The Waves are 3-3, but their three losses came to top-ranked Vanderbilt (twice) and 12th-ranked Stanford.

A potential challenge may finally be on the horizon for this ASU offense.

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