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Sun Devil Baseball Set for Pac-12 Road Opener at USC

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Sun Devil Baseball Set for Pac-12 Road Opener at USCSun Devil Baseball Set for Pac-12 Road Opener at USC

TEMPE -- The Sun Devil baseball team heads on the road for the first time in nearly a month this weekend, traveling to Los Angeles for the team's Pac-12 road-opening series against the USC Trojans beginning Friday, March 24. The Devils open the series on Friday at 6 p.m. PT, followed by a Saturday tilt at 7 p.m. before concluding the series on Sunday at 2 p.m. 

#10THINGS (Twitter-Friendly Notes)

1. .@spencerv44 has caught four baserunners stealing a base this season, fourth in the Pac-12 and tops among pitchers.

2. The 6 Devils who've combined for ASU's nine homers this season entered 2017 with 3 collegiate homers between them.

3. .@elingos15 has already matched his 2016 win total with 3 in just 5 starts w/ 0 earned runs in two of three starts.

4. .@ashap08 has reached base in all 13 of his 14 appearances his season and had a 10-game hitting streak ended vs. OSU.

5. ASU is 11-6 in series' against USC since 2000 and 5-2 in series that were played in Los Angeles.

6. .@elingos15 has four quality starts in his five starts, allowing just two earned runs and a W over #1 TCU.

7.  .@jwilleford17 became the first Devil to account for multiple game-winning RBIs this season, both against LBSU.

8. The Devils and @USC_Baseball have ended the regular season against each other in two previous seasons to 2017.

9. .@lin_lyle has multiple hits in nine games this season already. No other Sun Devil has done so in more than four. 

10. .@ASU_Baseball has won at least 30 games in 56 consecutive seasons, two more than Florida State in second.

Follow the Action

  • Saturday and Sunday's contests will both be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks. Jim Watson and Andy Lopez will be on the call.
  • Fans will be able to view the series opener on Friday via the Pac-12 Network Live Stream, available for free at http://pac-12.com/live/
  • The Sun Devil Sports Radio Network is scheduled to broadcast all three games this weekend on NBC Sports Radio AM 1060 and 100.7 HD 2. Each game will also be available through the TuneIn app on TheSunDevils.com. Broadcaster Tim Healey is set to serve his 19th season as the "Voice of the Sun Devils" on baseball broadcasts and will be joined for the second-straight season by color analyst Max Rossiter, who was an all-conference catcher for the Devils from 2012-13.
  • Fans are also encouraged to follow along on Twitter (@ASU_Baseball) for live updates throughout the weekend. 

Scouting the Trojans

  • The Trojans are coming off a Pac-12 opening series victory over Washington State at home this past weekend.
  • USC is the top fielding team in the conference this year with just 10 errors on the season and a .985 fielding percentage.
  • Lars Nootbar leads the conference with four home runs this season while Brandon Perez is among the tops in the conference with a .359 average this season.
  • The two teams have a pair of common opponents in LMU and Long Beach State with USC dropped a walk-off extra inning loss to the Lions (4-3 in 10) while picking up an extra-inning victory over LBSU earlier in the season (4-3 in 11).

Devils vs. USC

  • ASU leads the all-time against the Trojans, 106-102, and is 11-6 in series' against USC with three sweeps since 2000. 
  • ASU has closed out the regular season vs. USC in each of the past two seasons so this early season trek to face the Trojans is unique.
  • The Devils have taken the series opener in each of the last two seasons before falling in the final two games of each series. 
  • Since 2003, the Devils are 5-2 in series' played against USC in Los Angeles.

Eli's Coming 

  • Eli Lingos, who earned first team Pac-12 All-Academic honors in 2016, has quickly solidified himself as the team's ace this season after entering the year as the Friday Night Starter.
  • Lingos has opened the 2017 season with a bang, going 3-1 with four quality starts in his first five appearances of the season. No other Sun Devil has more than one quality start this season.
  • Among those wins were an upset over then-No. 1 TCU and a career-best 7.2 IP outing against LMU in which he allowed no runs.
  • Lingos has gone over 6.0 IP in each of his five appearances this season after neving having consecutive games over 6.0 IP in his career prior to this season.
  • The junior lefty has allowed no earned runs in two of his four starts this season, something he had done in a start just once in his career prior. 
  • His three wins this season match his 2016 total while he has issued no walks in two of three starts this season, something he had accomplished in just two starts prior to 2017.
  • Lingos is currently just outside the Top-10 in ERA in the Pac-12 this season at 2.43.
  • He is third in the league with 33.1 innings pitched this season and eighth in the conference with 29 strikeouts.

Mr. Friday Night

  • Lingos is the sixth pitcher since 2014 to assume the Friday Night role, joining Ryan Burr, Brett Lilek, Seth Martinez, Ryan Kellogg and Hever Bueno. 
  • ASU used four pitchers in the Friday night role in six seasons between 2008 and 2013 with Mike Leake ('08, '09), Seth Blair ('10), Brady Rodgers ('11, '12) and Trevor Williams ('13).
  • Lingos joins a long and illustrious line of Mr. Friday Night's at ASU that includes nine Major Leaguers and numerous ASU Hall of Famers, including Eddie Bane, Floyd Bannister, Kendall Carter, Mike Esposito, Larry Gura, Gary Gentry, Mike Leake, Trevor Williams and Brady Rodgers.

Lin-Sanity

  • True freshman Lyle Lin continues to be the highlight of a young freshmen class, ranked seventh in the Pac-12 Conference with 26 hits this season. 
  • Lin has had three or more hits in three games on the year while registering multiple hits in nine of 16 games on the season overall. No other Sun Devil has more than four such games.
  • Lin has started every game this season, one of just three players to do so - with a team-leading .351 average and 13 RBI in the process, the latter good for 11th in the Pac-12.

Re-LYLE-able

  • Lyle Lin has an approach at the plate that is tough to find in many freshman. The youngster lead's the team's starters with a .407 average this season with two outs on the board on 11-of-27 hitting. No other Devil has more than eight 2-out hits.
  • Lin leads the team with six two-out RBIs and also holds a team-leading 12 hits with runners in scoring position on 24 at bats (.500), six more than the next closest Devil.
  • Lin has reached base in 18 of ASU's 19 games to date.

#BISHETE

  • Another pair of freshman have come up with the hot bats of late as well in outfielder/DH Hunter Bishop and infielder Carter Aldrete.
  • Bishop cracked the rotation as the starting DH against Long Beach State and had hits in each game of the series. The youngster finished the weekend with a home run and a triplea and a team-leading five RBIs in some of the most important at-bats on the weekend to help lead each of the team's three come-from-behind victories.
  • Aldrete is one of just three Sun Devils to start every game this weekend (Lyle Lin and Gage Canning being the others) and has appeared at three positions along the infield. He is currently second on the team with 10 RBIs and four doubles while tied for the team lead with two home runs.  
  • Bishop and Aldrete had history before coming to Arizona State. Both hail for Northern California and played in the 2015 Under Armour All-American games and selected to play for the Oakland Athletics' Area Code team in 2015.

Zach Cer-Bomb

  • One of the most pleasant surprises of the early 2017 has been the emergence of senior catcher Zach Cerbo, a four-year veteran who is seeing his most significant action as a Sun Devil this season.
  • Cerbo has responded with a .333 average in his 12 appearances, also leading the way with a team-leading .455 on base percentage with his four walks.
  • The senior helped lead the charge in the team's sweep of Long Beach State, knocking his first career home run in the second game of the series and knocking in four RBIs over the course of the weekend.

12-Gage

  • Gage Canning holds the Devils second longest hitting streak this season at seven games. Canning had a team-best 13-game hitting streak as a freshman in 2016.
  • Canning has spent time at the leadoff spot and turning the order back around in the nine-hole this year and done exactly what's expected of him in that role, stealing two bases, leading the team with 14 runs scored (10th in the Pac-12) and advancing runners on 17-of-34 opportunities (.500).
  • Canning also leads the Devils with five doubles and two triples this season (tied for third in the Pac-12).

Shaps Blasts

  • After missing the first five games of the season to suspension, junior Andrew Shaps matched the Sun Devil season lead with 13 consecutive games reaching base, a streak that was snapped in the finale against No. 2 Oregon State.
  • The outfielder had a career-best 10-game hitting streak entering that OSU finale and is already third on the team with 10 runs scored this year.
  • Despite missing five games, Shaps  is third on the Devils with six walks this season.

Small Ball

  • The Devils have done the majority of their damage by manufacturing runs this season. Despite ranking third to last in conference this year (41) in extra-base hits, the Sun Devils are still in the middle the league with 167 total hits. The Devils are fifth in the conference with 126 singles as well and fourth in sacrifice flies (9) while having advanced runners a solid .474 percent of the time (153-of-323 opportunities).

They Can Mash Too

  • While the Sun Devils have had a penchant for small ball, the team has shown it can knock it around the park as well.
  • ASU currently ranks seventh in the league in home runs with nine this season, four of which came in the LBSU series.
  • ASU's first six home runs of the season were solo shots prior to Andrew Shaps breaking that trend with his clutch two-run bomb in the bottom of the ninth to spark ASU's come-from-behind extra inning victory over LBSU.
  • Six Sun Devils (Tyler Williams 2, Carter Aldrete 2, Andrew Shaps 2, Ryan Lillard 1, Zach Cerbo 1, Hunter Bishop 1) have combined for those nine home runs this season - an interesting note as those six combined entered the 2017 season with three career collegiate home runs between them (Shaps 2, Lillard 1).

Clutch Hitting

  • The Sun Devils have lived and died by their clutch hitting this season, currently batting 35-of-106 (.330) with runners in scoring position in the team's wins but struggling to plate runners in the team's losses at just 16-of-76 (.211).
  • Batting .261 as a team this season, the Devils have upped that just slightly to a .280 clip (51-of-182) with runners in scoring position. 
  • On the flip side, ASU has struggled defensively to get out of some innings, allowing 47 two-out RBIs of the 105 total by the opposition this season while allowing opponents to bat .326 (77-of-236) with two outs.

Getting Their Bearings

  • The Sun Devils will look to buck the trend of slow starts this weekend after being outscored15-0 in the first inning of its last six games. 
  • The Devils have been outscored 21-5 in the first innings of games this season and scored just 21 runs total in the first three innings of games (of 90 total runs this season).

Not Wasting Time

  • Freshman Spencer Van Scoyoc became the first Sun Devil freshman to start a game in the Opening Weekend since Adam McCreery against Western Michigan in 2012. 
  • Van Scoyoc pitched a gem in his start against #1 TCU, going 6.0 innings with four strikeouts and no earned runs allowed in his first career quality start.
  • Van Scoyoc currently sits just outside the Top 10 in the Pac-12 with a team-leading 2.42 ERA.
  • The lefty has been nigh impossible to steal a base off from this season, leading all Sun Devils with four caught stealings this season - a total good for fourth in the Pac-12 and first among all pitchers - to just two stolen bases against.
  • Van Scoyoc was selected in the 19th round of the MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays but elected to attend ASU instead. 
  • He was rated the #1 LHP and #1 overall player in Iowa and the #8 overal LHP in the nation.

Baseball's in Their Blood

  • There are eight Sun Devils on the 2017 squad who have a history of baseball in their family: Ryan Hingst (father, David, UT El Paso), Andrew Snow (cousin, Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox), Garvin Alston Jr. (father, Garvin, MiLB), Eli Lingos (brother, Angelos, UC Riverside), Jackson Willeford (brother, Guy, Palomar JC; brother, Alex, Palomar JC/SDSU), Hunter Bishop (brother, Braden, Seattle Mariners), Fitz Stadler (Brothers Sullivan and Walker, Indiana), Carter Aldrete (father, Rich, MiLB; uncle, Mike, New York Yankees).

Keeping It Interesting

  • The Devils had a knack for success in close games last season and that continued this season
  • Since 2016, the Devils are 7-1 in extra-inning games (1-0 in 2017), with six walk-off wins (two this season) and are 15-2 (3-1 this year) in one-run games including 5-1 in Pac-12 play. ASU has driven in the game-winning run in the eighth inning or later 13 times (three times this year).
  • Arizona State has notched nine wins since 2016 when trailing after six innings (three times this season).

#OccupyPHXMuni 

  • ASU drew more than 78,000 fans last season, finishing in the top 30 nationally in total attendance and attendance per game. 
  • ASU ranked 13th in total attendance and was the only school west of Texas to draw more than 100,000 fans in 2015, and ranked 18th in average attendance with 3,082 fans per game. ASU's 107,010 fans were the program's most since 2010 and ranked as the fourth-highest regular-season attendance since 1988. 
  • ASU moved back to Phoenix Municipal Stadium in 2015 after playing 40 seasons at Packard Stadium from 1974-2014, winning their first contest in the team's on a walk-off home run in extra inning against No. 5 Oklahoma State on Feb. 13, 2015.
  •  The Devils played 137 games at Muni from 1964-74, and went 111-26 at the stadium, including 17-6 against Arizona. ASU's first game at Muni was April 10, 1964, and was a 5-3 win over Arizona. ASU's last game at Muni was March 18, 1974, and was 9-6 win over Colorado. ASU won District 7 titles in 1965 and 1967 at Muni before going on to win National Championships in Omaha. 
  • Former Sun Devil and eventual Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson was the first college player to hit a home run at Muni.

Erives On Fire

  • Sun Devil Baseball senior RHP Eder Erives has been named to the preseason watch list for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award, given to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball, members of the association announced Monday.
  • Erives is the first Sun Devil to be named to the preseason watch list for the award since Ryan Burr in 2014.
  • Erives, a Pac-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention in 2016, notched a 6-2 record with a 2.95 ERA last season. His 10 saves trailed only Oregon State's Max Englebrekt, whose 11 saves top the list of returning relievers in in the Pac-12.
  • Last season, Erives struck out 73 batters and walked 36 in 76.1 innings. The 76.1 innings pitched rank fourth among the 55 players named to the watch list while his 73 strikeouts are good for seventh. Erives held opponent batting average to .192, a career-low for the right-handed pitcher. He made 23 appearances with three starts and finished fourth in the conference in saves.
  • Erives holds a 3.00 career ERA and a 9-4 record overall with 61 total appearances, three starts and 11 saves over 129 innings.