Arizona State sweeps St. John’s, hit milestone for historic start

Where Saturday’s win was defined by the pitching performance, it was the offense that showed up in a big way, riding three huge innings to defeat St. John’s 16-6, finishing off the series sweep.

Easton Barrett took the ball in the finale, looking to bounce back from his first start of the season that lasted just 1.2 innings. Unfortunately, walks plagued Easton for a second straight outing, issuing 4 free passes alongside two hits in his 2.1 innings. Jaden Alba came on in the early relief role, and the Sun Devils found themselves trailing 2-0 after the top of the 3rd before the bats came alive.

The scoring was contained to three different innings, but in each inning the Sun Devils showed their patience, took advantage of errors by St. John’s, and simply strung together hits. All three scoring innings saw the Sun Devils bat around, putting across 5 in the 3rd, 6 in the 6th, and another 5 in the 8th to put the game well in hand. A total of 15 Sun Devils got plate appearances, giving everyone their opportunity to show what they bring to the team before a tough road trip.

Sophomore Ky McGary was presented with the “Big Nuts” for the player of the game, and rightfully so with a 3-for-3 performance in his first career start, also walking twice and scoring 3 runs. Beckett Zavorek, Landon Hairston, PJ Moutzouridis, Nu’u Contrades, and Dominic Smaldino all recorded multi-hit games, and four Sun Devils recorded multiple RBI. Zavorek flashed his speed on the basepaths as well, swiping two bases. Scoreless innings from Taylor Penn, Wyatt Halvorson and Finn Edwards allowed the Devils to have the game under control. Eli Buxton and Nick Anello pieced together the 9th to preserve the win.

The rocky start gave Coach Bloomquist a lot of areas to celebrate but also areas of opportunity heading into a two game series at Oklahoma. A 9-for-19 performance with runners in scoring position coming off going 2-for-10 on Saturday was a bright area, but the situational hitting left Bloomquist looking for more out of his players. Coach Bloomquist also stressed the fact that even though the team is undefeated, there is still a ton of baseball to be played.

At 7-0, the Sun Devils are off to their best start since 2019 when they won their first 21 games of the season. The next opponent in Oklahoma is also 7-0, and coming off a weekend sweep of Coppin State that featured three mercy rule wins. After the two game set in Norman, the Sun Devils will jet over to Arlington, TX for the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series, taking on three teams that are ranked at the time of this writing in Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Texas A&M. That series will be played from Globe Life Field on February 27-March 1. The Devils will return home to host a three-game series against Loyola Marymount University March 6-8.