Another night, another win for the Sun Devils.
ASU faced the UNLV Rebels for a midweek game Tuesday in Las Vegas. With junior pitcher Josh Hansell on the mound followed by a good bullpen performance, ASU won 6-2. It is ASU’s fifth straight win and eleventhth his last 12 games.
Going into the sixth round, ASU was trailing 0-1. Hansell gave up a first inning run to Rebels junior outfielder Alex Pimentel.
This remained the only goal for both teams until second baseman Jacob Tobias fired a three-pointer into right midfield to score two goals. Shortly after, freshman outfielder Isaiah Jackson hit a sacrificial fly to hit Tobias and improve the Sun Devils by two.
The only other run for UNLV was a sack fly by redshirt junior Matt Tieding junior left fielder Austin Kryszczuk. Anything else head coach Willie Bloomquist threw out there surpassed the Rebels, who hit the Arizona State bullpen six times.
Freshman third baseman Nu’u Contrades continued an impressive season. Contrades hit his fifth home run in the seventh and hit two more before freshman infielder Reese Beheler hit a double that Luke Hill hit from a fielder’s choice to lead the Sun Devils to four runs.
Graduate student Nolan Lebamoff earned his third win of the year on the hill.
The Sun Devils face a struggling California team on the streets this weekend. The Golden Bears are hoping to get on track after losing nine of their last thirteen and averaging just over five runs a game at that stretch.
However, it doesn’t show the full picture. Once you take out sixteen-run performance against Ohio State, Cal’s offense averages four runs per game over that span.
In conference play, the Golden Bears sit at 2-7. Your pitching staff gave up more than six and a half runs per game in the Pac-12 game. After a series of losses to Oregon State in which they were competitive in every game, Cal is hoping to turn the season around before it’s too late.
ASU will be looking at the lineup to continue the hot stretch they’ve been on. In their last 12 games, the Sun Devils have averaged a little over nine runs per game and have netted ten or more runs in four of those games.
This unit will be key in this series because she wore it throughout the season. So far, the Sun Devils have struggled in low-scoring games, recording just one win in a game with fewer than four offensive runs.
The series begins Friday at 7:00 p.m. MST in Berkeley, where the Sun Devils aim to get back on the road above .500 this year and continue their dominant play in the conference so far.
