After winning all six of its first Pac-12 series this season, No. 5 ASU baseball gets a break from conference play with a three-game home stand against Tennessee Tech.
With four series left of conference play, one could say the break is much needed — most notably, the Sun Devils (26-11, 14-5 Pac-12) have had to grind out conference wins in gritty, ugly fashion.
Although the Pac-12 is a tough conference, seven of their 13 conference victories have been one-run wins, leading to a 14-5 overall record in one-run games this season.
However, ASU recently dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season, including a game against Arizona where it gave up a six-run ninth inning and had a sweep pulled away.
Tennessee Tech (19-19, 11-10 Ohio Valley Conference) is seeing its first action against a top-5 team since losing 9-1 to then-No. 4 Vanderbilt. The Golden Eagles are 8-2 in their last two games, with one of the losses being in extra innings.
In the batter's box, Tennessee Tech's two dynamic hitters are senior infielder Dylan Bosheers and redshirt freshman first baseman Ryan Flick. While Bosheers ranks first on the team with a .341 average and second with 32 RBI, Flick has a team-leading 46 RBI and nine home runs.
The Golden Eagles also sport a solid duo on the mound with senior Chris Chism and sophomore Evan Fraliex, both with winning records.
Chism (6-1) holds a 4.28 ERA while tallying 48.1 innings in 12 starts, only giving up 23 earned runs. Also impressive are his 44 strikeouts compared to only nine walks issued.
Fraliex (4-2) has pitched 54 innings in only 10 starts, but has given up more hits and runs than Chism while holding a worse strikeout to walk ratio at 30 to 12.
One unexpected surprise for ASU has been the blistering stretch for sophomore David Greer, who initially entered the lineup when then-starting third baseman Dalton DiNatale suffered an injury earlier in the year. He has 25 hits and 31 RBI to this point, not to mention his team-best .350 batting average.
In addition, freshman second baseman Andrew Snow's emergence has allowed the Sun Devils to relegate junior Jordan Aboites to a reliever role. Snow, who hit his first collegiate homer in the series opener at Utah, is batting .371 with a .450 OBP and .600 SLG over the past 10 games.
Perhaps most critical has been junior Johnny Sewald beating the slump he faced earlier in the year. Sewald hit his first homer of the season at Washington and has slowly worked his way back to consistency, now batting .300.
Even when slumping, Sewald found ways to fulfill the catalyst role. It is ever-apparent now with his team-leading 23 drawn walks, seven more than the second-ranking player, and 16 stolen bases in 20 attempts, with the second-best player having just four successful stolen bases.
Do not expect ASU to take its foot off the gas, though, as it has let inferior teams hang around at times this year—most notably in the midweek games, three of which have been one-run games with the Sun Devils winning two of them.
After a bit of flux earlier on in the season, it appears ASU is sticking with the Seth Martinez, Ryan Kellogg and Brett Lilek starting rotation for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively, and this series should be no different.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or follow @justintoscano3 on Twitter.
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