Despite concerns heading into the season, the ASU baseball team entered 2016 on a roll and looking to accomplish something the program hadn’t done since 2012: start a season 4-0.
The Sun Devils (4-0) completed a season-opening sweep of the Xavier Musketeers with a 5-1 win Sunday afternoon at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Over the series, ASU outscored the Musketeers 20-6, overpowering the undermatched visitors from the Atlantic-10.
Neither team threatened in the first third of the game, collecting a total of four hits.
ASU put up a crooked number in the bottom of the fourth inning, drawing first blood. With two men on and two outs, freshman outfielder Gage Canning singled, scoring the first run of the game. Sophomore infielder Andrew Snow followed that up with a hit of his own, a ringing double down the left field line to drive home two runs and putting the Sun Devils up 3-0.
ASU added a fourth run in the fifth inning on a two-out single by junior shortstop Colby Woodmansee.
That would be all the run support freshman Reagan Todd would need in his first career start.
Todd was economical in his outing, throwing 75 pitches in five and a third innings, allowing no runs on three hits while walking one and striking out five Xavier batters.
“What a difference a year makes in growing up,” Smith said. “When you see under-confidence, it sticks out like a sore thumb and when you see confidence, it sticks out like a sore thumb. I think what you saw out of him today was a confident guy who’s put a lot of hard work in from last year to this year and the results speak for themselves.”
Todd’s start kept him well within the conversation for ASU’s third starting pitcher spot that remains up for grabs between Todd and sophomore Eli Lingos. He said he’s not worried about getting the nod over Lingos, but remains focus on pitching well and finding innings where he can.
“It’s still in the air,” Todd said. “If you throw well, you’re going to play, whether its as a starter or reliever. You’ve just got to keep working hard.”
After Todd’s departure in the sixth, the Sun Devils went with sophomore lefty Tucker Baca, who did not fare as well. He was able to get out of the sixth inning easily enough despite two hard-hit fly balls, but hit the first two men in the seventh, prompting another change.
This time, ASU turned to junior Eder Erives, who Smith sees as probably ASU’s most important reliever.
“I call it the ‘whatever role,’” Smith said. “What we have to do is keep an eye on the game situation and see how it goes, but the close inning may be the sixth inning or it may be the fifth. And so what I don’t want to do is be sitting in my home in Ahwatukee in the evening going, ‘gosh, I should’ve brought him in in the fifth inning, because that was the inning they threatened.”
With two on and no outs, Erives stood tall, netting a sacrifice bunt, a ground out to first base and a strikeout to allow just one inherited runner to score and keep ASU’s lead intact.
“It’s unbelievable,” Todd said. “On Friday he did the same thing where he’s able to go out there and go more than one inning and come out there and compete in the zone and continue to throw hard and have nasty slider. Having him in the back of the bullpen is a great asset for us.”
Senior infielder Jordan Aboites singled home an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning to put even more breathing room between the Sun Devils and Musketeers and carry the game to its conclusion.
Erives wrapped up the game and series in the ninth by completing his second save.
ASU now has a quick turnaround as the Nevada Wolfpack come to Phoenix Tuesday, giving the team a short window to fix mistakes, of which Smith says there are many.
“We got plenty to work on, let’s not kid ourselves,” Smith said. “We made several baserunning mistakes, you do those kind of bonehead things we did in the seventh or eighth inning that could come back to haunt you in conference play, so we’ve got to clean that up.”
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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