Coming into the Tempe Regional, the ASU baseball team was assigned the No. 19 and No. 32 teams in the country to compete with.
The fourth team in the bracket was New Mexico, a school that snuck into the tournament despite posting a losing record.
The No. 11 Sun Devils (42-16) were supposed to cruise past the Lobos and into a fight with the two ranked teams.
Instead, the exact opposite happened.
ASU needed a walk-off home run in the ninth inning to get past New Mexico, 4-2.
But after Friday night, the Sun Devil bats came alive.
ASU defeated No. 32 Charlotte Saturday 16-1, then came back Sunday to beat No. 19 Arkansas 13-4 and advance to the Super Regionals next weekend.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to move forward,” ASU coach Tim Esmay said. “After Friday night’s game our kids relaxed more and we played very good baseball. This is not easy, we are proud of our program, but this process is not an easy one.”
After being no-hit through the first five innings of the regional, the team scored 33 runs on 38 hits the rest of the way.
Sophomore designated hitter Joey DeMichele led the charge with nine RBIs on the weekend including two home runs, one of which was the walk-off hit Friday.
For his efforts in his first career postseason action, DeMichele was named the Tempe Regional’s Most Outstanding Player.
“I wasn’t really nervous,” he said. “Just trying to play it like any other game.”
Even though the offense started off cold, the Sun Devil pitching was lights out all three games.
ASU sophomore Brady Rodgers pitched eight innings of two-run baseball Friday, followed up by junior Kramer Champlin throwing seven shutout frames Saturday.
ASU junior closer Mitchell Lambson pitched a scoreless ninth inning Friday, then came back Sunday and started against Arkansas, pitching into the seventh inning and allowing four earned runs.
Lambson earned wins in both appearances.
“The defense really picked me up and helped a lot,” he said. “We knew we were in for a battle, and thankfully we got up early.”
With the three wins over the weekend, the program has won 21 consecutive home regional games.
The Sun Devils will now wait to see the winner of Monday’s Texas vs. Kent State game to determine whether or not ASU will host a Super Regional.
If the No. 7 Longhorns (46-16) win, the Super Regional will be in Austin.
If the Flashes (45-16) win, the games will be played in Tempe.
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu
