It's unlikely ASU freshman Andrew Romine has ever spent a prolonged period of time on the bench.
The son of former professional baseball player Kevin Romine, Andrew excelled at the sport so much in high school that he was chosen as Dustin Pedroia's successor at shortstop.
Romine experienced mixed results out of the gate. He showed flashes of brilliance on both offense and defense but put too much pressure on himself.
Following a 1-for-4 effort from the plate against Wright State that dropped his batting average to .266, Romine was replaced by sophomore Joe Persichina.
ASU coach Pat Murphy said Romine refused to take his benching lightly. Romine was back in the lineup over the weekend for the first two games of the UCLA series.
"He looked good," Murphy said.
On Sunday, Persichina got the nod at shortstop and came up with a key double early in the game.
"I can't leave Persichina out of there all weekend," said Murphy, who appears to be leaning toward a platoon between Romine and Persichina at shortstop.
Laguna sits
After going hitless in his first three at-bats Friday, freshman designated hitter Rocky Laguna was benched for the remainder of the series. Laguna has struggled in Pac-10 play, batting .268 in 10 games.
"It's not even the numbers. He's just not swinging the bat good," Murphy said. "He's going to have to take a step back right now and see if he wants to get back in there."
Laguna had batted in the leadoff spot. He was replaced by sophomore left fielder Colin Curtis, who usually bats fifth. Sophomore Zechry Zinicola and freshman Willy Fox each started a game at designated hitter in place of Laguna.
Small ball
The Sun Devils stole a season-high eight bases in Sunday's series finale. Junior left fielder Travis Buck swiped three bags and sophomore Seth Dhaenens stole two. Buck leads the team with 15 stolen bases.
Reach the reporter at kyle.odegard@asu.edu.
