ASU baseball remains undefeated following a team-wide effort for a 6-0 victory against Washington State on Friday.
Sophomore infielder Gage Workman went 2-for-4 with four RBIs, blasting not one but two home runs. Junior starter Alec Marsh had a night throwing 6.1 solid innings with two walks and four strikeouts shutting down Washington State (6-11, Pac-12 0-1).
"It's nice," Workman said on joining the Sun Devils' home run party. "I mean all the guys are giving me crap because I haven't hit one (home run) yet so it's kinda nice on getting that off my back a little bit."
Even though ASU baseball (17-0) earned their first Pac-12 conference win, Marsh said his performance did not reach full potential.
"Now that I'm back on a regular routine it'll be good for me to figure out what I need to do this week to kinda get back and feeling comfortable on the mound again," Marsh said. "But it's always nice when you can give your team a chance to win. Our defense is stellar unreal ... they picked me up huge tonight."
The Sun Devils' defense shined bright indeed turning not only three double-plays during the entirety of the game but during the third inning, Workman's cannon arm at third base got the first out while redshirt sophomore catcher Sam Ferri ended the inning on a pickoff at first.
"(The Sun Devils) were playing free," Coach Tracy Smith said. "They were playing more loosely and when you do that and you've got some talent it allows for those types of plays just to happen."
As far as the Sun Devils' offense goes, the Cougars couldn't stop them when Workman decided to add himself to an already diverse home run team with his first bomb to the deepest part of the field for an early 1-0 lead during the second inning.
On the other hand, Marsh allowing two hits through four complete innings kept things relatively quiet for the Cougars up until a walk and fielder's choice put the Sun Devils in an early jam.
However, while keeping focus he was able to strike out and force a grounder to retire the side. Meanwhile, junior infielder Carter Aldrete's RBI single earlier during the third inning allowed the Sun Devils an insurance run but when Workman brought the "juice" for his second home run to right center during the same inning the team was sitting with a 5-0 lead.
Before the night was over, junior outfielder Hunter Bishop, who had only one hit during the first inning, would put in his two cents in with an RBI triple during the seventh inning.
Closing on the mound senior righty Sam Romero delivered on 2.2 innings with two strikeouts while allowing a pair of hits.
ASU will return for the second game of the series on Saturday, March 16 at 6:00 p.m. MST with sophomore righty Boyd Vander Kooi on the mound.
Reach the reporter at Edith.Noriega@asu.edu or follow @Noriega_Edith on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
