Sophomore designated hitter Sebastian Zawada had another great showing at the plate Sunday afternoon as he helped propel ASU baseball to an 8-1 win, and a series sweep, against Eastern Michigan University.
The designated hitter was the hero in Saturday night’s 11-inning game, when he hit a walk-off single to score the winning run.
Sunday, his bat heated up even more as he blasted two home runs to the same spot over the left field wall.
“The last five at bats were pretty good, the first night of the weekend were kind of rough, but it got better and I brought it together and it turned out pretty well,” Zawada said.
The first homer came in the sixth after the first three batters of the inning came up and had some hot hits: a double from freshman third baseman Jeremy McCuin, a triple from sophomore center fielder Andrew Shaps and a single from junior first baseman David Greer, put the Sun Devils up 3-1.
Zawada then came to the plate and let it fly to add two more runs to the board, making it 5-1 heading into the seventh.
The next homer for Zawada came in the eighth after junior shortstop Colby Woodmansee and freshman outfielder Tyler Williams, pinch hitting for senior catcher Brian Serven, walked, setting up the three-run homer for Zawada.
Head coach Tracy Smith said the power Zawada showed over the weekend in the batter’s box is expected of him, as they signed the sophomore for that position.
“It’s not a fluke, he’s got some serious juice,” Smith said. “He got some pitches and some hittable counts today and did exactly what he’s supposed to do.”
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Eli Lingos worked effectively on the mound, pitching 6 2/3 innings allowing only three hits and one run, with two strikeouts.
“I kind of knew I had to make it through as many (innings) as I could because coming through five games this weekend it’s very important to get as many innings as we can and help keep it (bullpen) a little more fresh,” Lingos said.
The left-hander’s location was what was key for Lingos in the series finale against the Eagles, Smith said.
“We needed that today,” Smith said. “They (E. Michigan) proved over the first couple games that they could swing the bat, if you weren’t locating.”
ASU put sophomore right-hander Ryan Hingst in for Lingos during the seventh. Hingst pitched 1 1/3 innings and had no hits, no runs, with two strikeouts before being replaced by freshman Garvin Alston Jr. in the ninth.
Alston Jr. had ten pitches before Smith put Greer on the mound to finish out the game.
The uncertainty over the return of senior Jordan Aboites and sophomore Grant Schneider led him to slip Greer in to see what he could do on the bump, Smith said.
“It’s not a secret we’ve got guys on the shelf pitching,” Smith said. “David is a guy that had a lot of success in high school as pitcher, he’s got some maturity to him, while the young guys have some of the stuff, that’s the thing they’re lacking.”
The veteran ability isn’t fully developed with freshman third baseman Jeremy McCuin, but with Aboites out, McCuin got his first career starts this weekend and proved he may have a spot there in the future, Smith said.
“He goes out everyday, he practices, and through circumstances that he did not control nor had any influence on, was ready to go,” Smith said. “I thought he played really, really well this weekend and honestly probably put himself in a position to keep playing.”
Next up for the Sun Devils are two mid-week games at Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Smith said pitching for the series is still up in the air and the plan is to see where pitchers are in the next few days.
“We know how important this series is from an overall standpoint, from a national standpoint, we’re going to treat it accordingly,” Smith said.
Reach the reporter at haley.stesiak@asu.edu or follow @haley_stesiak on Twitter.
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