ASU Baseball: Bishop homers twice as Devils defeat Cal Baptist 15-9

A dominant offensive performance and a solid outing from Sam Romero is enough despite a poor late game showing from the Sun Devils bullpen and defense.

As usual, it all started with a home run from Hunter Bishop.

The Sun Devils center fielder’s solo shot kicked off what became another offensive onslaught from an ASU team that entered the night second in the nation in batting average and runs scored.

A second Bishop homer, his 12th of the year, later in the third capped off a five run inning for ASU (20-0) who never looked back in what became a 15-9 drubbing of California Baptist (14-7) from Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Wednesday night.

Four Sun Devils besides Bishop had two hits. Three different Sun Devils other than Bishop had two or more RBI’s. And by the end of the night, ASU had scored 10 or more runs in a game for the 10th time in 20 games.

It was a flawless night for the offense and on the mound, starting pitcher Sam Romero was pretty flawless himself.

The righty reliever/mid-week starter threw five shutout innings and allowed four hits while striking out five Lancers in the win.

But, ASU’s performance on the bump following Romero’s exit was far from ideal. In fact, it was downright unacceptable.

“To bring Brady Corrigan in at the end, I’m not real happy about it,” head coach Tracy Smith said after the win. “If you let down for one second at this level and you don’t pitch with a competitive attitude, you don’t hit with a competitive attitude you will increase your chances for a failed result.”

At the conclusion of the sixth frame, ASU lead 15-1. By the end of the ballgame Cal Baptist had scored eight runs in three frames while still having runners on first and third base.

The Sun Devils bullpen as a unit allowed nine runs in just four frames. Colby Davis and Will Levine combined to allow six earned runs in an inning of work.

For the most part it was another successful night at the ballpark for the Sun Devils. 20 straight wins is no small accomplishment and ASU’s offense was nothing short of spectacular.

But, the fashion in which the Sun Devils bullpen performed from the sixth inning on was not only an uncharacteristically weak performance but also an outing that was more than frustrating for coach Smith.

“The most disappointing thing for me is that those guys needed rest, we wanted them to get rest and that we couldn’t do it with a multiple digit lead is really concerning for me,” Smith said.

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