ASU baseball begins conference play against No. 4 Oregon State Friday at Goss Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon.
The Sun Devils have won eight games straight (not including Tuesday night's exhibition game), swept three straight series and have four walk-off wins in the last seven games, three of which have been in extra innings.
Those numbers, however, will be pushed to the side as Pac-12 play begins.
"It's a new season now, once you start conference play it doesn't matter if you're 13-3 or 3-13, you're 0-0 in the conference," head coach Tracy Smith said. "Our focus (now) is going out and trying to win Friday night."
Oregon State will be a force to be reckoned with at the plate this weekend. Eight players are batting over .300 and only three are batting below .200.
After Tuesday night's exhibition game, Smith mentioned that in order for the Sun Devils to survive Pac-12 play, pitches will need to change speeds and obviously be strikes.
With the impressive statistics that Oregon State boasts, ASU's pitching will surely be tested.
To start that test, junior right-hander Seth Martinez will have the start on the mound Friday night, Smith said.
As the Sun Devils head north, they are looking forward to getting started with Pac-12 play against the Beavers to see where they really stack up this year.
"The atmosphere, the fans, it's wild over there," said sophomore second-baseman Andrew Snow. "I love that kind of baseball, it fires me up. I think if we can all pull it together and have a great series over there, that'd be huge for us."
Tune in to this week's episode of Dirt on the Spikes as we discuss the last three series against Eastern Michigan, Cal State Fullerton and UC Davis, the exhibition game against Meiji University of Tokyo, and give you a further glimpse of what to expect up in Corvallis this weekend.
Related links:
Snow's walk-off single wins exhibition game for ASU baseball
ASU baseball wins third straight extra inning game
Reach the reporters at haley.stesiak@asu.edu or follow @haley_stesiak on Twitter and at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or on Twitter @justintoscano3.
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