PHOENIX -- Sun Devil Baseball returns hope to host its fourth non-conference series in as many weeks as it welcomes the 2019 Mountain West Champions, Fresno State, for a three-game series beginning Friday at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Friday and Saturday games will feature 6:30 p.m. AZT first pitches while Sunday's game will get underway at 12:30 p.m. AZT.
#10THINGS (Twitter-Friendly Notes)
1. The Sun Devils have 16 homers this season, a total that leads the Pac-12 and is good for 14th in the country.
2. .@spennyt leads the nation in being walked 27 times this season - nine more than any other play - and 15 of those have been intentional.
3. .@spennyt has at least one hit in 101 of his 125 career games at ASU and has multiple hits in 50 of those.
4. .@spennyt has played in 34 multi-game series/tournaments in his career and homered at least once in 28 of those.
5. .@trevor_hauver leads the team with a 12 game hitting streak heading into the week and 7 multi-RBI games.
6. After Spencer Torkelson's last 9 intentional walks, @trevor_hauver has gone 3-for-4 (2 sac flies, 3 RBI walks) with 10 RBIs and a homer.
7. .@ErikTolman has 30 strikeouts in just 18.0 innings of work this season, a 15.00 K/9 innings ratio that is 29th nationally.
8. .@swiftyy23 has gone 15-of-23 in his last five games (.652) and recording multiple hits in each of those.
9. .@alika_williams has 28 defensive assists this season, a total good third thrd in the Pac-12 and he has just two error on 49 chances
10. The Sun Devils have drawn 86 walks this season, 13 more than any other team in the Pac-12 and fifth in the nation.
Follow the Action
- All three games of the series this week will be carried live on the internet via the Pac-12 Network Live Stream, available at: TheSunDevils.com/Watch
- Fans are encouraged to follow along in-game content throughout the weekend on the Sun Devil Baseball
On The Titans
- ASU is 12-7 all-time against Fresno State, though the last matchup was not a pleasant one as Fresno State took two out of three from the Sun Devils in the Tempe Super Regional in 2008 en route to winning the National Title that season.
- Fresno State enters this weekend's series with the Sun Devils on a six-game winning streak after closing out its 12-game homestand with a 5-4 win over Seton Hall in 11 innings on Tuesday.
- The Bulldogs head out on the road for the first time in 2020.
- Junior catcher/infielder Zach Presno earned his second Mountain West Player of the Week honors on Tuesday after hitting .571 (8-14) with three home runs, eight RBI and seven runs scored in five games last week.
- The Bulldogs currently rank fifth in the nation as a team with 20 home runs and are sixth in the country at 1.67 home runs per game.
- Fresno State ranks 10th in the country in slugging percentage at .514.
- The 'Dogs lead the MW and rank 19th in the nation in walks allowed per 9 innings (2.78).
#TorksUp
- 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 against this season.
- When Torkelson has actually seen pitches to hit this year, he has responded with six home runs on his 13 base hits and three doubles to boot for a gaudy .850 slugging percentage.
- His six homers sit sixth in the nation.
- The junior leads the Pac-12 and is 17th nationally in slugging (.850) and is second in the league in OBP (.603/11th nationally) while leading in runs scored (20/3rd nationally).
- Torkelson has 54 homers in his career, second in Sun Devil history and needing just three to surpass Bob Horner's long-standing school record of 56.
- He is the active career leader in homers at 54, regardless of NCAA level, and has 17 more home runs than the next closest Division I player.
- Torkelson has played 34 multi-game series at ASU and homered at least once in 28 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
- He has at least one hit in 101 of his 125 career games and multiple hits in 50 of those.
- Torkelson needs 19 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 leads the nation with 27 walks, an incredible 15 of which have been intentional. He has nine more walks than any other player in the country, with the second place person happening to be teammate Trevor Hauver (8).
- Torkelson drew a school record five walks in ASU's extra-inning victory over New Mexico State, tying the record set by Kole Calhoun (2010), Alvin Davis (1982) and Fred Nelson (1967).
- His 15 intentional walks are already the most by any Sun Devil in a season since at least 1998 (Jeff Larish with 11 in 67 games in 2005). His 13 intentional walks are more than the entire Sun Devil TEAM posted in 16 of the last 22 seasons.
Alika Like That
- As a leadoff batter, Alika Williams has reached 8 times on 23 chances (.348) and he also sits second on the team in advancing baserunners in front of him 19 times this year (.655 percentage on 29 chances). His 8 runners advanced with an out of the season are tops on the team.
- Defensively, the junior has continued to be elite with just two errors on 49 chances (19 putouts, 28 assists). He has turned six double plays on the year, tied for 7th in the conference while sitting third in the league with his 28 defensive assists.
- Williams quietly continued to put up impressive numbers as a sophomore in 2019, 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.
- Defensively, 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.
Just Like He Drew It Up
- Drew Swift has been Mr. Sun Devil for the ASU this season, seeing time at second base, shortstop, center field and right field.
- Drew Swift has been on an unreal tear over his last five games, recording five-straight multi-hit efforts and two of those being four-hit contests. In the five-game stretch, Swift has gone 15-of-23 with a team-best 11 RBIs. The 15 hits are seven more than any other player on the team in the stretch.
- Swift leads the team in batting average, sitting at .404 overall on the season with a team-best 23 hits - 8 more than any of his teammates.
- He has easily been ASU's best hitter with runners in scoring position, going 11-for-21 (.524) with five more hits than any teammate.
- His clutch hitting has also stood out as he is the team's best hitter with two outs, going 9-for-21 (.429) with three more hits than any teammate.
- Swift has a team-best 8 multi-hit games - 4 more than any of his teammates - and is the only player on the squad to record a 4 hit game thus far this year and has done so twice.
- Swift is riding an 11-game reached base streak into the weekend.
- Swift was named to the Pac-12 honorable mention All-Defensive team as a sophomore.
- He had nine doubles last season - a career-best - and a triple for 10 extra-base hits on the season despite missing several weeks to injury. He had just two extra-base hits as a freshman
- Swift was a part of 36 double plays, despite the time missed, good for fourth in the Pac-12 in the category and second among non-first basemen. He helped ASU turn 61 double plays on the season - sixth in the nation and first in the Pac-12
- His 135 defensive assists were good for 7th in the Pac-12.
Trev Lightly and Carry a Big Stick
- Trevor Hauver shook off a tough opening week and has become one of the hottest bats in the Sun Devil lineup, providing valuable protection to Torkelson in the lineup.
- Hauver has a hit in 12 straight games, the longest streak on the team this season, and has reached base in 13 straight games.
- The junior leads the team with 19 RBIs, which leads the Pac-12 and sits eighth in the country.. He has seven multi-RBI games, two more than any other player on the roster.
- He is second in the league behind Torkelson with five homers - 16th nationally.
- Hauver is second in the nation in drawing 18 walks this season, trailing only Torkelson's national-leading 27.
- Hauver is 26th nationally in runs scored and third in the Pac-12 with 16. His .708 slugging percentage is third in the league and he is tied for first in the conference with 34 total bases.
- He leads the team with 9 two-out RBI and has brought home a runner from third with less than two outs a team-best 7 times on 8 chances (.875).
- In Torkelson's last nine intentional walks, Hauver has gone 3-for-4 with 10 RBIs, a two-run homer, three RBI walks and two sac flies.
- Hauver 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
- 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.
- 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.
Filling the Boyd
- Boyd Vander Kooi is the veteran presence in the starting rotation for the Sun Devils this season but has provided much needed depth off the bench as well.
- The junior leads the team with a 0.73 ERA in 24.2 innings pitched. The ERA is good for 4th in the Pac-12 despite leading the league in innings pitched.
- Vander Kooi has walked just two batters to 19 strikeouts this season and the 9.5 strikeout to walk ratio is third in the Pac-12. His 0.85 WHIP is ninth in the Pac-12 while
- His 0.73 walks allowed per nine innings are third in the league and 42nd nationally but seventh among pitchers with at least 20.0 innings pitched on the year.
- In his last seven regular season appearances dating back to last season, Vander Kooi has posted a 1.43 ERA in 44.2 innings pitched, striking out 41 with just six walks and seven earned runs allowed.