The month of May is truly make it or break it for No. 6 ASU baseball with the Pac-12 title at stake.
ASU has played four of the five worst teams in the Pac-12 to this point, but on Friday it will start a road series against Cal, the third-best team in the conference—the series begins a month full of tests for the Sun Devils, including hosting conference leader No. 2 UCLA and traveling to USC to play its fourth-best team.
However, what has been a great season for ASU (28-13, 13-5 Pac-12) has been partially marred by its inconsistency. The most recent example was its 17-6 loss at Arizona on Tuesday, which came a game after posting a 16-4 win over Tennessee Tech behind an 11-run fifth inning.
On the other hand, Cal (27-14, 13-8 Pac-12) has won four straight, including a sweep of Arizona. Also worth noting is the Golden Bears' 10-game winning streak earlier in the season. With a bit less than a month to go in the regular season, they are also yet to play UCLA and USC, which could shake the standings up on both ends.
Cal's top hitters are senior Chris Paul, and sophomores Aaron Knapp and Lucas Ecreg. More impressive than the fact that each bats .309 or better is that all have started at least 40 games for the Golden Bears this season.
Ecreg leads the team in RBIs (32) and home runs (nine), but Paul trails closely behind with 30 RBIs and seven home runs, but also boasts a team-best .544 slugging percentage.
One concern on the ASU side has been junior closer Ryan Burr. Once dominant earlier in the season, Burr has been in a rut for a few weeks, not earning many easy outs.
Most recently was Burr's blown save and loss in the second game of the Tennessee Tech series. Moving forward, ASU will need him to step up to have the best shot of finishing strong — especially because it is moving into the meat of the schedule, with many possible one-run games where it will need its shutdown guy of earlier this year.
On the mound, the Golden Bears' three projected starters for the series have ERAs under 3.13, with their midweek starter having an ERA under 3.00.
In the bullpen, Cal has Alex Schick, Dylan Nelson and Chris Muse-Fisher, who have all pitched at least 21 innings.The three bullpen leaders sport ERAs of 3.86, 3.00 and 2.62, respectively.
The ASU rotation was in a bit of flux earlier in the year when then-Friday starter Brett Lilek was not performing up to par and was relegated to the Sunday start. While Ryan Kellogg has been rock solid, Lilek has been inconsistent.
After Sunday's win over Tennessee Tech, head coach Tracy Smith said he will look to see if Lilek backs up his performance with another quality start. In what is expected be a close series in Berkeley, a solid start from Lilek could be the deciding factor that determines whether ASU remains unbeaten in Pac-12 series or not.
Finally, a series win would go a long way in providing the Sun Devils with valuable momentum heading into the UCLA series, which could very well put one team in the driver's seat heading into the final two weeks of the season.
Projected Starting Pitching Match-ups:
Friday 7.p.m.: So. Daulton Jefferies (5-2) 1.55 ERA (CAL) vs. So. Seth Martinez (2-0) 3.38 ERA
Saturday 6 p.m.: Jr. Ryan Mason (5-2) 3.12 ERA (CAL) vs. Jr. Ryan Kellogg (7-1) 3.67 ERA
Sunday 1.p.m.: Fr. Matt Ladrech (6-4) 2.16 ERA (CAL) vs. Jr. Brett Lilek (3-2) 3.66 ERA
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or follow @justintoscano3 on Twitter.
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