PHOENIX -- Sun Devil Baseball - ranked as high as No. 3 in Baseball America's preseason poll - lifts the lid on the 2020 season this weekend at home at Phoenix Municipal Stadium in Phoenix with a three-game series against Big East opponent Villanova beginning Friday, Feb. 14 as well as a Top-10 matchup against last year's College World Series runner-up No. 8 Michigan on Saturday evening.
The season opener will get underway ay 6:30 p.m. AZT. Saturday's doubleheader will feature a 12 p.m. game against Villanova followed by a 6 p.m. first pitch against Michigan. The weekend will wrap up with a 12:30 p.m. contest on Sunday afternoon. All games this weekend will be streamed live online through the Pac-12 Network Plus with Saturday night's tilt against the Wolverines also taking place on Facebook Live.
#10THINGS (Twitter-Friendly Notes)
1. The Sun Devils logged 94 home runs last season, leading the nation in home runs per game and a Pac-12 record in the BBCOR era.
2. .@spennyt is just the third player in Pac-12 history to have consecutive seasons with 20+ home runs.
3. .@spennyt has at least one hit in 91 of his 112 career games at ASU and has multiple hits in 47 of those.
4. .@Alika_Williams posted a .409 average (18-of-44) when facing 1-2 counts. Of his 71 hits on the year, 41 came from behind in the count.
5. .@spennyt has played in 30 weekend series/postseason tournaments in his career and homered at least once in 24 of those.
6. In innings 7-9, @Trevor_Hauver bat .403 on 25-of-62 hitting w/ 18 RBIs and 17 runs. Six of his 13 dingers came in these late stages.
7. .@ErikTolman was dominant when he has two strikes to his credit, holding opponents to 4-35 (.114) in 1-2 counts and 5-of-30 (.167) at 2-2.
8. ASU's 61 double plays last season were fourth in the nation as the Devils tied a school record with a .976 fielding percentage.
9. In Pac-12 only games, @gagework9 had a .330 average - the best total on the squad while his 25 Pac-12 RBIs were second on the team.
10. During the 2019 regular season, the Sun Devil rotation stranded 474 baserunners - an average of 8.8 per game.
BY THE NUMBERS
94 - The Sun Devils led the nation in home runs during the 2019 regular season with 92 (finishing with 94 including the postseason), the most since the 1993 Sun Devils recorded 97 homers. The Sun Devils were the NCAA statistical champion in home runs per game at 1.65. The 94 homers were easily a Pac-12 record for the BBCOR era of batting standards, surpassing Oregon State's total of 67 in 2018. ASU was the first Power Five school in that BBCOR era to have multiple players reach the 20-home run milestone thanks to Torkelson (23) and Bishop (22).
61 - The Sun Devil defense showed massive improvements in 2019 and turned 61 double plays on the season - a total that led the Pac-12 and was fourth nationally. ASU's defense matched the school season record with a solid .976 fielding percentage that that was fourth in the league and 50th nationally after consecutive seasons ranked 184th or worse in the cateogry. Alika Williams was second in the Pac-12 with 149 defensive assists. He helped turn 36 double plays, which was good for fourth overall in the Pac-12 and first among non-first basemen.
20 - For the second conseuctive season, Spencer Torkelson eclipsed 20 home runs to make him just the third player in Pac-12 history to do so in back-to-back seasons (UCLA's Eric Valent in '97-98 and Bill Scott in '99-00). He joins Bob Horner as the only other player in ASU history to do so and is now within 8 homers of Horner's school record. Torkelson has played in 30 weekend series/postseason tournaments in his career at ASU and homered in 24 of those. Of the 20 Pac-12 series he has played to date, he has homered in 18.
4 - Four Sun Devils garnered mention on at least one Preseason All-America team heading into the 2020 season. For the second straight season, Spencer Torkelson was a Unanimous First Team selection by every major NCAA baseball news outlet. Alika Williams earned a First Team nod from D1Baseball and second team honors from Baseball America and Perfect Game. Gage Workman added a second team nod from Baseball America while Trevor Hauver was a third-team choice by the NCBWA.
Follow the Action
- All games this weekend will be carried through the Pac-12 Network Live Stream, available at: https://pac-12.com/live/arizona-state-university. Saturday night's tilt will also be carried through Facebook Live.
- Fans are encouraged to follow along in-game content throughout the weekend on the Sun Devil Baseball account (@ASU_Baseball).
- The Saturday night contest against Michigan will be available over local airwaves on NBC Sports 1060 AM with Jeff Munn on the call alongside analyst Max Rossiter.
Season Openers and the Wildcats/Wolverines
- The Sun Devils are 47-13-1 in season openers and have won or split 12 of their last 13 season opening series. ASU has won 11 of its last 13 season openers.
- The Sun Devils will be taking on Villanova for the first time in program history this year and are 33-12 in the all-time series against Michigan and will be meeting the Wolverines for the first time since 2008.
- Michigan is the expected favorite to win the Big Ten this season after finishing as runners-up to Vanderbilt in the College World Series last season. Michigan must replace key contributors including 2019 Big Ten Player of the Year Jordan Brewer and starters Tommy Henry and Karl Kauffmann. Still, there's plenty of talent in Ann Arbor. Righthander Jeff Criswell (7-1, 2.72) is back to lead the rotation after spending the summer with USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team. He'll get help from lefthanders Ben Dragani and Steve Hajjar, who both missed last season due to injury. Michigan's lineup features junior outfielders Jesse Franklin (.262/.388/.477, 13 HR) and Jordan Nwogu (.321/.435/.557, 12 HR, 16 SB). Franklin was voted a Preseason All-American, though he will miss the start of the season due to injury. Shortstop Jack Blomgren (.314/.417/.401) and catcher Joe Donovan (.234/.314/.421, 9 HR) are back to keep the Wolverines strong up the middle.
- The Wildcats have not won more than five Big East games in a season since 2015 but there is reason for optimism in Philadelphia. Sophomore infielder/righthander Nick Lorusso was named 2019 Big East rookie of the year after hitting .302/.408/.425 and going 1-3, 6.05 with 32 strikeouts and 15 walks in 41/2 innings. Sophomore righthander Gordon Graceffo (3-8, 4.88) last season emerged as the team's Friday starter and is ready to reprise that role this spring. The Wildcats brought in another solid recruiting class, giving coach Kevin Mulvey some solid building blocks for the program.
Fear the Tork
- Projected as No. 1 Overall Pick in several early MLB mock drafts and a unanimous Top-3 Pick in any mock draft he's not listed No. 1, junior first baseman Spencer Torkelson figures to pace a potent offense again this season.
- He would be just the third first baseman selected #1 Overall (Ron Blomberg 1967, Adrian Gonzalez 2000) and the first right-handed first baseman to go #1 in MLB Draft history
- For the second straight season, Torkelson was named an Unanimous All-American after another eye-popping campaign and went on to compete for the U.S. Collegiate National Team for the second time this summer as well.
- Torkelson needs 25 home runs to break into the NCAA all-time Top-10 in career homers and in doing so would become the first player in the BBCOR era to even sniff the feat. He would be just the second player since 2000 to have a career home run tally that left him in the Top-10 in NCAA homers (Matt LaPorta, Florida).
- Torkelson has 48 homers in his career, needing just nine to surpass Bob Horner's long-standing school record of 56.
#TorksUp
- Last season, Torkelson was the Pac-12 home run leader for the second season in a row, finishing the season with 23 – good for fifth in the nation. He became the first Pac-12 player to lead the conference in homers in back-to-back seasons since Oregon State's Michael Conforto 2012 and 2013, though it should be noted Conforto only hit 13 and 11 in those seasons.
- Torkelson is only the third player in Pac-12 history to have back-to-back 20+ home run seasons.
- Torkelson ranked in the Top-10 in the Pac-12 in a slew of categories including homers (1st), walks (41/8th), average (.351/8th), hits (85/3rd/33rd nationally), runs (69/3rd/18th nationally), RBIs (66/2nd/27th nationally), slugging (.707/3rd/17th nationally) and total bases (171/1st/5th nationally).
- Torkelson led the team with 27 hits with runners in scoring position, recording 27 hits on 67 chances (.403)
- He was an extremely tough out to end the inning, extending the inning 26-of-67 times with two outs (.388) with a team-best 35 two-out RBI - 15 more than any other player on the roster.
- Hit or not, Torkelson consistently found a way to successfully advance baserunners, doing so 71 times on 142 opportunities (.500).
- With his first home run in the series against Cal, Torkelson has homered in every single Pac-12 ballpark in the league despite being just a sophomore.
- Torkelson has played 29 weekend series at ASU and homered at least once in 23 of those. He has played 20 Pac-12 series and homered in 18 - the season finales against Cal (2018) and Stanford (2019) being the only exceptions
- Defensively, Torkelson made huge strides and helped turn 10 more double plays than any other player in the Pac-12 (57), which was a testament to some of the impressive stretches and picks he has made to make those possible.
- He had just four errors on the year despite being sixth in Pac-12 in defensive chances (476) and one of those came while he was playing out of position in right field for one inning in a game earlier this season.
- Joined Brett Wallace as the only other player in Sun Devil history to be a two-time semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award.
Alika Like That
- Alike Williams quietly continued to put up impressive numbers as a sophomore, embracing his role as a cleanup hitter with All-Pac-12 honorable mention accolades with a .333 batting average with 53 RBIs - easily a career high in the category. He had just 20 total RBIs as a freshman.
- When he did get RBIs, he tended to get a lot of them. He had 16 multi-RBI games was second on the team with nine games with three or more RBIs.
- Williams homered four times and recorded 12 doubles and three triples. He slugged .474 on the season - nearly 150 points higher than his freshman total of .333. With 19 extra-base hits on the year, he far surpassed his freshman total of nine.
- The sophomore was incredible when falling behind in counts, posting a .409 average (18-of-44) when facing 1-2 counts. Of his 71 hits on the year, 41 came from behind in the count.
- He was 37-of-105 (.352) on two-strike hitting on the year - striking out a team-low 28 times while walking 33 times, making him the only player on the roster with more walks than strikeouts.
- 20 of his 53 RBIs (.377) came when falling behind in counts.
- The sophomore was incredible at advancing baserunners this season, leading the team with a .593 average with 73 advancements on 123 opportunities.
- Williams was ASU's most productive hitter with the bases loaded, going 7-for-14 (.500) with a team-best 16 RBIs.
- Defensively, Williams was second in the Pac-12 with 149 defensive assists.
- He has helped turn 36 double plays, which was good for fourth overall in the Pac-12 and first among non-first basemen.
- His defensive efforts allowed him to be named a member of the Pac-12 All-Defensive team as a result.
Putting in the Work
- Gage Workman was one of the hottest players in the Sun Devil lineup of at the end of the season and finished the year batting .330 with 40 runs scored, 42 RBIs and eight home runs. He had hits in 20 of the final 26 games and multiple hits in 12 of those.
- He was second on the team with 20 two-out RBIs and successfully advanced runners 63 times on 125 chances (.504)
- In Pac-12 only games, Workman had a .330 average - the best total on the squad while his 25 Pac-12 RBIs were second on the team.
- In Pac-12 only games, Workman was tied for 10 in the league with 19 walks.
- His .430 on-base percentage was 12th in Pac-12 games and the second-best among all Sun Devils in the category. His .623 slugging percentage in Pac-12 games was 9th in the league and second on the team.
- Workman had eight home runs on the season, a new career high. His 23 extra-base hits surpassed his freshman total of 20.
- The sophomore earned Honorable Mention honors on the All-Pac-12 team.
- Workman had just three errors in Pac-12 games at third base on 80 chances (.964) and helped turn 17 double plays on the season en route to Pac-12 Defensive Honorable Mention honors.
Trev Lightly and Carry a Big Stick
- Had a breakout sophomore campaign in which he was named to the Pac-12 Honorable Mention team as well as earning a second-team nod on the ABCA All-West Region team
- Spent the majority of the season as the leadoff batter, recording a .339 average that was good for third on the team behind All-Americans Hunter Bishop and Spencer Torkelson
- Slugged .574 on the year behind 13 home runs (10th in the Pac-12) and 16 doubles (7th in the conference) and reached base at a .433 clip
- Hauver had a 15-game hitting streak at one point in the season, the third-longest streak for a Sun Devil on the year
- He was the top ASU player in games in several categories, posting a seven-RBI game, a five-hit game, a four-walk game and a two-home run game.
- Scored 60 runs, sixth in the Pac-12 and 60th in the country
- As a leadoff batter in an inning, Hauver reached base 37 times this season on 98 chances (.378)
- Hauver was very productive for his teammates as well, successfully advancing runners 68 times on 126 chances (.540). Of ASU's day-to-day starters, Hauver's 32 runners left stranded were the fewest on the team.
- He was light's out with runners in scoring position, leading the team with a .450 average on 27-of-60 hitting while also making it tough for pitchers to get out of innings with a second-best .370 average on 20-of-54 hitting with two outs.
- Hauver had a case for being ASU's most clutch batter late in games. In innings 7-9, Hauver bat .403 on 25-of-62 hitting with 18 RBIs and 17 runs, easily leading ASU in each of those categories in the late stages of games. Six of his 13 home runs came in those latter stages of games.