Offensive explosion leads to 12-4 win for Arizona State, clinch series win against BYU

The Sun Devils' electric offense has returned, and not a moment too soon.

After taking the first game of their weekend series against BYU with a strong 8-3 win on Thursday, Arizona State went for the series win on Friday night. They got up early and never looked back, coasting to a dominant 12-4 victory.

With Jack Martinez getting the start, Arizona State knew they could count on another night of strikeouts left and right. They got a bit of a surprise when BYU's lead-off batter smacked a solo home run, but Martinez struck out two to close out the inning after that.

The Sun Devils, suddenly trailing 1-0, wasted no time in responding.

A walk of Landon Hairston, who's been red hot lately, was followed up by a single from Matt King. Jacob Tobias then stepped up to the plate and launched his own home run, racking up three runs with one swing of the bat.

That wasn't all, though. Nu'u Contrades hit a solo homer on the very next pitch and, two at-bats later, Kien Vu did the exact same thing. Just like that, Arizona State was up 5-1 just one inning in.

BYU notched another run in the second, with Martinez walking in a run with the bases loaded, but consecutive strikeouts got the Sun Devils out of the jam with minimal damage.

Then it was time for even more scoring. Jax Ryan drew a lead-off walk and then stole second. When Hairston knocked a double to deep right center field, Ryan came home with ease. A follow-up single from King brought Hairston home right after, upping the lead to 7-2.

Martinez locked in from there, blanking the Cougars over the next four innings and not even giving up one hit while striking out a total of 10 batters on the night. His most impressive moment came in the fifth, with three strikeouts to retire the side.

In between the dominance from Martinez was dominance from the bats for Arizona State. In the bottom of the third, Kyle Walker hit a beautiful solo dinger that was a goner from the moment it left the bat. Brandon Compton grounded out with an RBI in the fourth. BYU didn't pitch a scoreless frame until the fifth, at whixch point they were trailing 9-2.

The Sun Devils went quiet for a brief stretch, but woke up again in the seventh. Contrades hit a solo home run to lead it off, and Compton followed it up with a walk. Then Vu launched his second home run of the night, tacking on two more runs and bringing the lead up to an insurmountable 12-2.

Sean Fitzpatrick came in to pitch the eighth, replacing Will Koger after a shutout seventh inning. However, Fitzpatrick walked a batter with two outs before being taken deep for a two-run home run. It was the Cougars' first points since the second inning, and it proved to be their last as well.

Derek Schaefer took the mound in the ninth with an incredible 12-4 lead. The lead-off batter grounded out, and Schaefer struck out the next batter. A throwing error from Contrades put one on base, but Schaefer forced a pop-up for the third and final out, clinching the series win in dominant fashion.

Arizona State, firmly in a slump just a couple days ago, now has two dominant wins in a row and a very good chance at their first sweep since late March against Utah. That would be a huge boost in morale as the Sun Devils continue their push for the postseason.