Sun Devil Baseball Takes Scottsdale for Final Pac-12 Tournament

PHOENIX -- Sun Devil Baseball opens postseason play looking to solidify its  NCAA Tournament resume starting with the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament beginning on Tuesday, May 21 with pool play against Standford at 10 a.m. AZT at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Sun Devils will then take on No. 6 Oregon State on Thursday morning at the same time.

The Pac-12 Tournament had nine teams split into three pods of three. Each team will play round robin within their pod with the pod winners advancing to the semifinals on Friday and the fourth team decided by the highest seeded team with the best record in pool play. Tiebreakers within pool play will be broken based upon the higher seeded team. 


#10THINGS (Twitter-Friendly Notes)

1. The Sun Devils played five teams this season that won conference titles last year (Santa Clara, Stanford, UCSD, Fullerton, TCU).

2. 26 games (46%) vs. 2023 NCAA tournament teams (Fullerton, Santa Clara, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Arizona, Oregon, Oregon St., Stanford, UW.)

3. ASU is one of just 20 teams to have played a full 56-game schedule heading into the conference tournament this week. 

4. The Sun Devils lead the Pac-12 with five first team All-Pac-12 selections and have the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, Brandon Compton.

5. ASU has a winning record in road games (11-9) for first time since '16. It's one of only 18 "P5" teams in RPI Top-100 with a winning road record.

6. ASU has scored three or more runs in 67 innings this season, four or more in 41 innings and five or more in 21 innings.

7. ASU picked up two road sweeps this season (at UCLA, at Stanford) for the first time since 1994 (at UCLA, at Cal).

8. The 2024 Sun Devils were the fastest in program history to reach 100 homers (56 games) and the most since the 1990 season. 

9. ASU's team batting average this season is 10th in the country and third in the Power Five behind only Tennessee and Virginia.

10. The Sun Devils are ranked No. 44 in the Diamond Sports Rankings predictive index, the fourth-best tally in the Pac-12 (the 4th best league in the index).

BY THE NUMBERS 
17 - The Sun Devils won 17 Pac-12 games this season, surpassing its total from a year ago. Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to the 64-team Regional Format in 1999, only one Pac-12 school with 17 wins did not earn a bid to the tourney (USC last season). There are currently 10 teams in the RPI Top-50 with Sub-.500 records in their conferences. ASU's 17 wins should have been enough for the No. 4 seed in the Pac-12 but the team played one more league game than 17-win USC (which ASU defeated in the regular season tourney), thus placing 5th due to win percentage.

16 - Arizona State is 16-4 in its last 20 games Post-Tax Day - tied for the sixth-best record in college baseball in that time and tops among Power Five teams. In that time, the Sun Devils have bat a scorching .381 as a team, slugging .685 and reaching base at a .456 clip. The squad has 56 homers, seven triples and 50 doubles in the stretch. ASU has outscored opponents 237-130 over those 20 games, averaging 11.5 runs per game and reached double-digit runs 13 times in the last 16 games and in six-straight games overall to conclude the year.

15 - The Sun Devils have 15 wins over teams currently ranked in the RPI Top-100, a tally for for 38th among all Division I teams at the conclusion of ASU's regular season. In the previous RPI format, this would equate to 15 Q1/Q2 wins. However, the RPI metrics were changed after ASU's schedule was already in place for 2024, leading to a disparity in the current RPI compared to all other baseball ranking metrics. ASU is currently 44th in the Diamond Sports Rankings (DSR), a predictive index that ranks ASU as the 4th-best team in the Pac-12 (the 4th best league). ASU is 63rdin KPI, 43rd in Massey, 33rd in ELO and 55th in ISR.

11 - The Sun Devils won 11 games on the road this season, posting a 11-9 record that is their best since 2016 and just the third time with a winning road record since 2011. Arizona State is one of just 50 teams in the RPI Top-100 with a winning record in true road games and one of only 18 of those in a "Power Five" conference. ASU earned two sweeps on the road this season (at UCLA, at Stanford) for the first time since the 1994 season.  ASU completed the final year of Pac-12 action with an 11-1 record against the California league teams (17 combined national titles).

FOLLOW THE ACTION

• All pool play will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network with Saturday evening's tournament final available on ESPNU.
• All games  this week are slated to be on the local airwaves on KDUS 1060 AM with Tim  and Max Rossiter providing the highlights. All the radio calls from games can also be streamed online at: kdus1060.com/sundevils.
• Fans are always encouraged to follow the Sun Devil Baseball team on social media for any program or schedule updates throughout the week on the Sun Devil Baseball Twitter account: @ASU_Baseball

LAST TIME OUT: TEXAS TECH/UNLV

• ASU scored 52 runs over just three games in an exciting sweep off three non-conference games over Texas Tech and UNLV this weekend, coming from behind in all three games in the process.  ASU played the Red Raiders twice and the Running Rebels once, erasing deficits of three, five and seven, respectively to win each game. ASU trailed by five entering the ninth inning against UNLV on Saturday before scoring six runs to cap off the monumental comeback. 
• Ryan Campos notched his team-leading 25th multi-hit game of the season with his four knocks on Saturday. For the weekend, Campos bat an absurd .857 (12-of-14) with nine runs scored and slugged 1.357 with three doubles and a homer. In fact, his ninth inning sac fly tonight on a ball he absolutely hit on the screws that was caught on a leaping snag at the wall actually LOWERED his OBP below his average for the weekend to .824.
• Crazily, Campos was not named the Pac-12 Player of the Week - an honor that instead went to teammmate Jacon Tobias. Tobias bat .615 on 8-of-13 hitting with 13 RBIs, three homers and a double for a 1.385 slugging percentage while reaching at a .706 clip on the weekend. Saturday was a pedestrian one-RBI game for Tobias, after posting 6, 8 and 4 in his previous three games, respectively. The one RBI came at the biggest moment, though, as he walked it off on the last pitch of the game. Tobias' eight RBIs in the opener against Texas Tech were tied for fourth most in program single-game history.
• Trailing 13-6 after six innings, the UNLV game  marked the 11th time in the Willie Bloomquist era that ASU erased a deficit of at least five runs, improving to 9-2 in such games. It was the fourth time ASU has come back from a seven-run deficit to win a game under Willie Bloomquist, notable as the last time it had even one such game was in 2000.
• ASU's ability to get off to hot starts has been at the forefront of its last month of success. In ASU's first 39 games, it was outscored 39-28 in the first innings of games. In the last 17 games, ASU has outscored opponents, 44-21 in the first inning, scoring seven in the first inning of games this weekend. 

ON DECK: STANFORD/#6 OREGON STATE

• ASU will be facing Stanford for the fourth time in the last two weeks on Tuesday. Sun Devil Baseball swept the Cardinal in three games at the Sunken Diamond in its final road trip of the year to conclude the Pac-12 era of regular season baseball, giving the program its first time sweeping two road teams in a true three-game series since 1994 (at UCLA, at Cal) after sweeping UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium earlier this year.
• The series marked the first time in program history ASU has scored double-digit runs in each game of a three-run series at The Farm and the first time doing so against the Cardinal, regardless of location, since 1989 at Packard Stadium.
• ASU surpassed its conference win total from a season ago with 17 wins and is now victorious in four-straight weekend series, winning six Pac-12 series this season. ASU has scored 178 runs in its last 15 games, going 12-3 in that span while averaging 11.9 runs per game.
• ASU's 16 runs in the Stanford finale were the most it has ever scored at the Sunken Diamond and tied for the most against Stanford since scoring 19 in a home game in 1982 (also score 16 in 1990 and 1997).
• The five homers by ASU in the series finale were the most allowed by Stanford in a game this season and continued a trend for the Sun Devils, who have now had at least one game recording the most home runs against an opponent in a season in five-straight series (UCLA, USC, UCSD, UW, Stanford). It was the most home runs allowed by a Stanford team since giving up five to Cal in 2019. Stanford has not given up five homers at the Sunken Diamond since Chase Utley, Jim Hemming, Charles Merricks and Randall Shelley (2) on May 19, 2000.
• The finale marked the first time Stanford had allowed double-digit runs in three-straight Pac-12 games since 1999 (one against USC, two against Cal). It was the first time it had allowed 10+ runs in each game of ANY three-game series against an opponent since Arizona did so in 1993.
• ASU held Stanford to two runs in two games (one each in the first two games), the lowest consecutive game total against the Cardinals since giving up just one over two games at Packard Stadium in 1983. In fact, that was the ONLY other time ASU had allowed two or fewer runs in consecutive games against Stanford in the series history between the two since 1959. It should also be noted that both runs were incredibly tough ones, coming on an unearned run on Friday and a catcher's balk on Saturday. 
• ASU's 12-run margin of victory in the Friday opener was tied with a 15-3 victory in 1982 for its largest at Klein FIeld at the Sunken Diamond since the team joined the Pac-10/12 Conference in 1978. It was ASU's largest win against the Cardinal, regardless of location, since a 16-1 victory at Packard Stadium in 1990.
• The one run allowed by ASU in those two games were the fewest it had given up to Stanford since a 7-1 victory on May 1, 2011 - an ASU home game. It was the fewest ASU had allowed at the Sunken Diamond since giving up one in a 3-1 victory on March 27, 1993.

GOING CAMP-ING

• Ryan Campos was named a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy last week and has twice been named the Pac-12 Player of the Week. He is also on the Watch List for the 2024 Buster Posey Award for the National Collegiate Catcher of the Year. Last weekend, Campos bat an absurd .857 (12-of-14) with nine runs scored and slugged 1.357 with three doubles and a homer
• Campos entered the season as D1Baseball's 10th-ranked catcher in the country and No. 95 collegiate prospect for the 2024 MLB Draft. He was named to the Preseason All-Pac-12 team, as voted on by the league's coaches. 
• Campos has the 19th-best active career batting average (.369) - tops among the nation's catchers and third among players with at least 500 career at-bats (559).
• Campos has reached base in a ridiculous 135-of-145 (93.1%) career games with the Sun Devils overall. He had a 40-game reached base streak dating back to 2023 snapped at Oregon State but has, regardless, reached base in 52 of 53 games for ASU this season. 
• Campos currently paces the Pac-12 with 25 doubles this season - a tally good for third in the country. His 11 homers are 15th in the league as well.
• Campos is the fourth player under Willie Bloomquist to have at least 20 doubles and 10 homers in a single season, joining Joe Lampe/Nate Baez (2022) and Luke Keaschall (2023. That tally is notable as ASU had just five players total accomplish the feat between 1998-2021. He is one of just 30 players in D1 Baseball this season to reach the 20/10 mark.
• His 55 RBIs this season are one shy of the team lead and sixth in the Pac-12. His 20 two-out RBI are the third-most on the squad.
• After an uncharacteristically low Sub-.300 average for the majority of the season, Campos rode a hot April where he bat .409 over 17 games and carried that through early May to bring his season total to .364 - good for third in the Pac-12. Campos has bat .375 in Pac-12 games, a tally that is good for fifth in the league. 
• His 25 multi-hit games are four more than any Sun Devil this year. 
• Campos' .460 average OBP is third on the roster and fifth in the Pac-12 while his .618 slugging percentage is seventh in the league. He is slugging .633 in Pac-12-only games, the fifth-best tally in the conference. 
• The junior has solidified his spot as a leadoff batter in the second half of the season and has posted a gaudy .564 on-base percentage when leading off an inning this season, reaching on 44-of-78 chances.
• Campos has 38 walks on the season, good for fifth in the league. 
•  In fact, despite having more strikeouts than he did all last season  (25), Campos still has more walks and his 0.65 strikeout-to-walk ratio is third in the Pac-12. He has  struck out just 10 times in the last 37 games after having 15 in the first 19.
• He easily leads the team in productive outs, advancing runners with an out 34 times - 17 more than any of his teammates.
• His 72 runs scored also pace the team and are good for second in the Pac-12 and10th in the country.
• Campos has been exceptional behind the plate as well, throwing out 17 of the last 54 baserunners attempting to steal on him (35.6 percent) after posting just a 2-for-21 tally to start the year. His 19 runners caught stealing are second in the Pac-12 and his 39 defensive assists this season are for second  among Pac-12 catchers. In Pac-12 games, however, his 15 runners caught stealing were three more than any other catcher and his 30 defensive assists were six more than any other backstop.
• The junior had his first multi-homer game against Santa Clara in the finale, also posting a career-best five RBIs. He added another multi-homer game against Oregon. 
• Campos reached base in all but two games last season. The only two games he did not reach base were once during opening weekend and then the first game after he returned from an 11-game injury absence.
• Had a team-best 31-game reached base streak at one point in last season and showed off plenty of extra pop in the bat, recording eight homers, seven doubles and a triple
• Campos was named to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List and also tabbed as the Pac-12 Player of the Week after the Washington State series during his sophomore campaign.
• In 44 games, Campos smacked .388 with 16 extra-base hits including eight home runs...He walked 35 times and struck out on a mere 17 occurrences
• Campos' 35 earned free passes were 15th in the league, yet because of his midseason injury, he had the fewest games played of anyone in the top 50 in the category.
• His .388 average was third in the Conference of Champions and his .503 OBP was tops in the league
• ASU's most reliable presence over the last two seasons, Campos earned his first recognition to the All-Pac-12 First Team last season as a sophomore after picking up an honorable mention honor as a freshman, also earning Freshman All-America honors that season as well.
• For his elite efforts behind the plate, Campos was named as a Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Semifinalist.

JACOB'S LADDER

• Jacob Tobias earned Preseason Pac-12 All-Pac-12 recognition after he took his game to the next level last season, finishing with a .317 average and starting 54 games - the majority coming at first base.
• Tobias is batting .329 this  season with 55 RBIs, 14 doubles and a team-leading 18 homers, the latter of which is good for second in the Pac-12. His .635 slugging percentage is sixth in the league.  He slugged .626 in Pac-12 games, the ninth-best tally in the conference.
• His 14 doubles give him 33 for his ASU career while the 18 homers have bumped his career tally to 35. The 35 homers are the seventh-most for a player in the career at ASU since the 1998 season.
• Tobias' 143 career RBIs are the 15th-most for an ASU player since the 1998 season and his .558 career slugging percentage is also 18th at ASU in that time. 
• Tobias has a 22-game active reached base streak going into the weekend, trailing only Campos' active 25 game-streak and third longest for the season (Campos had a 30-game streak to start the year as well).
• The junior posted his first career five-hit game in the finale against Arizona and added a four-hit game against Utah. He added another five-hit game in just seven innings against Texas Tech last weekend.
• Tobias has recorded 19 RBIs in his last four games alone (six, eight, four, one) to now sit tied for second on the team with 55 this season. He joins Spencer Torkelson as the only other Sun Devil in the last decade to record over 50 RBIs and over 10 homers in back-to-back seasons. His 55 RBIs this season are tied for sixth in the Pac-12.
• Tobias was named by D1Baseball as the No. 44 first baseman in the country entering this season.
• Last season, he slugged .546 with 10 homers, nine doubles and leading the team with four triples en route to a 59 RBI season - good for ninth in the Pac-12 though the eight players in front of him benefited from postseason action.
• Tobias was deadly the second time through the order with 22 of those RBIs coming in the fourth or fifth innings when he saw a starter for the second or third time - batting 23-of-50 (.460) with 22 RBIs, three homers and over a .500 OBP in those two innings. 
• As a sophomore, he recorded an RBI in 12 of the last 18 games of the season and 33 games overall. He has an RBI in three of four games thus far this season.
• Tobias was 7-of-9 on the season when the bases were loaded and brought a runner home from third with less than two outs 75 percent of the time (15-of-20).
• Tobias earned Pac-12 Honorable Mention accolades last season as he took his game to the next level, finishing with a .317 average and starting 54 games - the majority coming at first base.
• Tobias was named a Freshman All-American in 2022. His 12 bases (two homers, two doubles) against Utah in the series finale are tied for the most by a Pac-12 player in a game. His seven homers this year were tied for eighth in ASU freshman history.

ENJOYING THE VU

• No player swung a better bat over last month  and a half for the Sun Devils - or the Pac-12 - than Kien Vu.
• In the month of April, Vu posted a .439 average to lead the Sun Devils, boasting a gaudy .848 slugging percentage that was 100 points higher than any of his teammates. He had seven homers, four doubles and a triple while driving in 26 runs - 12 more than any other Sun Devil for the month. His efforts garnered him finalist consideration for the NCBWA Hitter of the Month.
• Overall on the season, Vu posted a .427 average over 45 games and 33 starts. His 56 RBIs are tops on the squad and fifth in the Pac-12 despite having over 20 fewer at-bats than the team's eight AB leaders and nearly 50 fewer AB's than the four players in the Pac-12 ahead of him.
• His .825 slugging percentage (14 homers, 11 doubles, two triples) is easily tops on the team while he also leads the squad with 11 stolen bases on 12 chances. He is reaching base at a .506 clip on the year.
• Vu now has enough ABs to qualify for NCAA and Pac-12 statistic minimums and enters the weekend with the fourth-best batting average in the country and second in the Pac-12 by just ,02 points.
• His .825 slugging percentage is ninth nationally and second in the Pac-12 and his .506 OBP is  second in the league and 21stin the country.
• He led the Pac-12 in league-only games with 418 average and .916 slugging percentage and his 31 RBIs in Pac-12 games were fifth in the league.
• Vu is second in the country in batting average on balls in play at .516 

ACTION JACKSON

• After a solid freshman showing, Isaiah Jackson has shown continued exceptional defensive skills while adding 28 RBIs and eight homers.  Jackson is batting .269 on the year but has reached base at a .352 clip thanks to 18 walks and five HBPs.
• Jackson's 28 RBIs match his total from a season ago.
• The sophomore has been exceptional in the last 16 games, batting .379 on 16-of-44 hitting.
• Jackson has been second on the team in productive outs, advancing runners with an out 17 times. 
• The sophomore recorded SportsCenter's No. 1 play a couple weeks ago against UCLA with his incredible leaping grab over the wall in right center field to rob a three-run homer from the Bruins, becoming a viral sensation overnight with several million views of the catch over multiple platforms. 
• Jackson's eight putouts in center field in the USC finale are tied with Hunter Bishop (2019) for the second-most for an ASU outfielder since 1998 behind Joe Lampe's nine in 2021. Coincidentally, all three of those games have taken place against USC.
• Jackson homered in the first two games of the season, as did teammate Jacob Tobias, joining a small list of Sun Devils to do so since 1998, including Spencer Torkelson (2020), Riccio Torrez (2011) and Jason Kipnis (2008). 
• His three-hit game in the opener gave him more hits in five at-bats than he had through his first seven games last season.

BIG MAC

• Nick McLain missed the start of the 2024 campaign for the second-straight season due to having his other hamate bone removed, but has been very productive since his return and is responsible for the go-ahead RBI or run in a team-best seven ASU games this season.
• McLain was the back-to-back Pac-12 Player of the Week the last two weekends, doing so last week after a Stanford series  and Arizona midweek where he finished the four games batting .611 on 11-of-18 hitting, with three homers and two doubles to post a 1.222 slugging percentage while reaching at a .667 clip with three walks and striking out just once. He had a team-best eight RBIs and six runs scored.
• McLain led the Pac-12 in league-only games with 38 RBIs this season out of his 54 total - which is two off the team lead. The 38 RBIs were three more than any other Pac-12 player in league games. His .692 slugging percentage in Pac-12 games was fourthin the league and his 22 extra-base hits in Pac-12 games were second.  He has homered in seven of the last 12 games.
• The sophomore enters the weekend riding a 18-game hitting streak, the longest active streak on the Sun Devils and the longest for the season overall. He has reached base in 20 straight games.
• He is second on team with 16 multi-RBI games and has recorded one of those in 10 of his last 14 games
• Nick McLain homered for the fifth-straight game in the UW finale to cap off a gaudy week at the plate with his first career five-hit game. In ASU's five games that week, McLain bat .591 (13-of-22) with 13 RBIs and scored 14 runs. He hit a walk-off grand slam in extra innings (10) to defeat Washington on Friday. He slugged 1.364 on the week with five homers and two doubles, striking out just once and reaching base at a .654 clip for a gaudy 2.018 OPS. His efforts were rewarded as the unanimous National and Conference Player of the Week by all major outlets, including NCBWA, NCAA Baseball, D1Baseball and the Pac-12 Conference. 
• McLain has drawn 33 walks this year and been hit seven times, a large part of his .462 OBP over his .346 average on the year. His 14.9 walk percentage this season is 11th in the Pac-12 and is 0.82 strikeout-to-walk ratio is fifth in the league.
• He has brought the runner home from third with less than two outs 14 times this season - leading the team despite missing eight games. 
• McLain's 17 doubles this season are seventh in the league despite his games missed and his 12 homers are 13th. His 1.117 OPS is third in the conference and his .346 average is seventh.
• Defensively, McLain is 30th in the country in defensive runs saved on fly balls at 3.72. He has no errors on 92 chances this season with a team-leading five outfield assists. 
• McLain is one of just 13 eligible players in the Pac-12 to not record an error thus season and his 9 errorless chances are fourth among those. 
• After struggling following his return from hamate surgery to start the year, McLain  had a monster eight-game stretch between the Washington State and Cal weekends, batting  a team-best .438 (14-of-32) with eight extra base hits for a .906 slugging percentage, leading the team with 16 RBIs - five more than any other player. He has three homers, four doubles and a triple in the stretch.
• McLain bat .313 in Texas in his return from the surgery (5-of-16) and a .421 OBP with five RBIs in four games - including essentially carrying the team on his back with his four RBI effort against UT Arlington that included a two-RBI single to tie the game at 2-2 in the fifth and then a go-ahead two-RBI double in the seventh to put ASU on top for good in the victory.
• McLain also missed the first half of the season last year after a sustaining a hamate injury the week prior to the season and wasted no time catching up on the lost time.
• McLain earned Pac-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention despite appearing in just 23 games, posting a .298 average and reached base at a .391 clip while slugging .649 behind eight homers, two triples and five doubles, recording over an RBI per game with 24 on the season, recording eight multi-RBI games.
• He enters this season as D1Baseball No. 53 collegiate prospect for the 2024 MLB Draft.
• He 3-for-6 with four RBIs  - including a two-run insurance missile in the ninth - in his collegiate debut, a road win over Grand Canyon
• McLain tarted his collegiate career with an 11-game hit streak - the longest streak to start a career for an ASU freshman since at least the 1998, as far back as easily found records can be accessed - and had hits in 14 of his first 15 games as a Sun Devil
• He also recorded five outfield assists on the year in his limited action.
• McLain showed the clutch gene through out the season, batting .400 in the 8th inning or later of games, posting four homers and eight RBIs in the process.

LEAVING HIS MARK-L

• Connor Markl has been Mr. Consistent on the mound for the Sun Devils this season, posting a team-best four quality starts - which included posting consecutive quality starts for the first time since Tyler Meyer in March of 2022 - and eating up innings on Saturday's after ASU had to rebuild its  weekend rotation after losing two of its Opening Weekend starting pitchers.
• Markl went at least 5.0 innings in seven straight starts over the course of March and April,. It was the first time in his career going 5.0+ innings in seven-straight games and tied for the most at ASU since current Kansas City Royals pitcher Alec Marsh started the 2019 season with 10 such games. He now has eight such games going 5.0 or more innings in a contest.
• Markl was named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week following the Arizona series, ASU's first pitcher of the week since March of 2022 as well, for his efforts in one-hitting the Wildcats. 
• In his two quality starts against Arizona and Washington State, Markl had a 1.42 ERA over 12.2 innings with 14 strikeouts to four walks, holding opponents to a .186 average against. 
• He matched his career high in innings pitched with his 6.0 against Arizona and then topped it with his 6.2-inning effort against Washington State. It marked the first time in his career that he had posted back-to-back 6.0 inning efforts. 
• The senior has been exceptional in league games and his 3.54 ERA is fifth among Pac-12 starters. His 4.21 overall ERA is seventh in the league.
• Opponents are slugging just .362 off of Markl, the third-lowest tally in the league. 

NOT THEIR FIRST RODEO 

• While the names and faces of Harris Williams, Kevin Karstetter, Mario Demera, Eamonn Lance and Steven Ondina are new to Sun Devil fans, the trio bring no shortage of career experience and that has been in full display this season
• The five players had combined to play in 681 career games before even setting foot on ASU's campus.
• Williams, a USF transfer who ranks in the Top-50 among all active Division I players in career games played (214), is batting .302  on the season.
• Williams was responsible for the team's walk-off two-RBI double is ASU's home win GCU, ready when his number was called after not starting and not entering the game until the seventh inning as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement. His two RBI-double against UNLV in the ninth on Saturday helped kick start the team's six-run walk-off inning.
• Williams has 14 multi-hit games this year. He is one of seven Sun Devils with double digit doubles with 13.
• The super-duper senior has advanced baserunners at  a .553 clip, doing so on 47-of-85 chances. He has gotten the job done as the leadoff batter as well, reaching on 26-of-69 chances while leading off an inning ( .379).
• Williams has brought the runner home from third with less than two outs 12 times, third, om tj team  and has been solid with runners in scoring position, batting .356 (16-of-45).
• Steven Ondina has sneakily put up a .299 average this season and has been among ASU's hottest players in the last 18 games where he has bat .354 with 20 RBIs, five homers and two triples. 
• Ondina has ninestolen bases while making several highlight reel plays at shortstop en route to a team-best 105 defensive assists this year, good for 15th among all Pac-12 defenders.
• Ondina has six homers this season, including his first multi-homer game of his career at Stanford this last weekend. That tally is notable as he had just two TOTAL in three seasons prior to arriving at ASU over 110 games and 365 ABs
• Mario Demera saw seen an uptick in playing time in April and has been pivotal in filling the void at third-base with Nu'u Contrades' season-ending injury. He was responsible for the go-ahead grand slam in the fifth inning of ASU's series-clinching win over Cal. It was his the first home run as a Sun Devil and also the first home run given up by Cal reliever Tyler Stasiowski this season. It was the first he had allowed since March 7, 2023 against Villanova, ending a streak of 29 straight appearances and 43.0 innings without allowing a long ball. 
• It was Demera's first homer since April 22 of last year against San Diego and just his sixth career homer over three-plus seasons and over 130 games played with over 450 at-bats.
• In the 25 games prior to the Stanford series, Demera had quietly put up  23  RBIs, good for third on the squad in that stretch. He hasdjust three errors at the hot corner in that stretch as well.
• Demera has also shown his veteran presence by being second on the team in successfully advancing runners at a .574 clip, doing so on 35-of-61 opportunities.
• Eamonn Lance has continued to be absolutely exceptional off the bench, recording a ninth-inning pinch-hit home run against Arizona two weeks ago - his third ninth-inning pinch hit homer of the year. He now has three homers as a pinch hitter and a team-best six RBIs as a non-starter while batting .373. Lance has 14 hits this season, six of which have left the ballpark while also adding two doubles. He was the only player to record an RBI in all three games against Oregon State, doing so twice as a pinch hitter - including breaking up a shutout in the ninth inning in Saturday's game with a solo home run. He added another pinch hit homer, a two-run shot, in the finale against UCLA as well. 
• Karstetter has been solid with a.310 average with runners in scoring position (9-of-20). He notched his first homer of the season against Stanford two weekends ago, recording the go-ahead solo shot in the sixth inning to break a 6-6 tie. He posted his second in the very next game against Texas Tech on Thursday.

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON

• Redshirt freshman Brandon Compton was recruited to ASU as a pitcher out of high school, but Tommy John surgery sidelined him his true frosh year, instead allowing him to focus on his bat - and focus he did.
• Compton is the Pac-12 Freshman of the year and  leads Pac-12 freshmen in homers (14), doubles (16), average (.363), slugging (.681), and OBP (.431) and RBIs (50). He is eighth overall in doubles, seventh in homers, fifth in average, fourth in slugging, eighth in OBP and 12th in RBI.
• He is 36th among all players nationally in batting average on balls in play (.444)
• His 363 batting average is Top-10 among all D1 freshmen and fifth among Power Five Freshmen and his 14 homers are Top-15 among all freshmen nationally
• The youngster is third on the team with his .363 average this season. His .383 mark (23-of-60) with runners in scoring position is second on the team.
• 27 of his 50 RBIs have come with two outs, leading the team in the category and having six more than any other player.
• Compton has recorded three grand slams this season, tied for the second most in program history and just one shy of the ASU single season record.
• His 1.113 OPS is third on the squad and is fourth in the Pac-12 while his .319 ISO Slugging (Slugging Minus Average) is fifth the Pac-12.
• Compton has easily been ASU's best hitter with two outs this season, recording a .467 average on 28-of-60 chances, leading the team in average and hits in the scenario.
• He was responsible for the go-ahead grand slam in the series finale against Ohio State that proved to be the difference in the 10-8 ballgame. He also had a huge game-tying RBI single in the eighth inning of ASU's eventual walk-off win over Oregon. He had the go-ahead two-run homer against Utah Valley as well. 
• Compton had a productive Summer Ball campaign in the Northwoods League for the Duluth Huskies this past summer, making the league All-Star game and was the league leader in RBIs with 71 while slashing .320/.423/.563, recording 17 doubles and 13 homers across 60 games and 231 ABs

NO DOZE-ING OFF

• Ethan Mendoza has put together quite the start to his collegiate career, posting a .323 average  and showing off a penchant for clutch batting, earning the team's walk-off fielder's choice against Oregon and following that with a go-ahead two-RBI single in the ninth inning of the team's Friday-night victory over Arizona. He recorded the team's go-ahead eighth inning three-run homer in the finale of the 21-18 UW series and keyed the team's 10th inning rally in the Friday victory with his one-out triple that started the six-run onslaught..
• Mendoza is fourth on the team with 14 runners advanced with an out this season. 
• In ASU's last 18 games, Mendoza is third on the team with a .440 average, recording three homers, two triples and five doubles for a .741 slugging percentage. He is one of seven  Sun Devils this season with double-digit doubles (11) .
• The freshman recorded a 4-for-4 effort in the second game against Washington State despite only seeing five pitches in the contest. He has seven games with three or more hits this season, tied for the most on the team.
• Ethan Mendoza entered the UCSD/UW week with no homers before registering three over ASU's five games that week - the first three of the freshman's career. None were bigger than his go-ahead three-run shot in the eighth of the rubber match against UW on Sunday. That capped off a five-game stretch for the freshman where he bat .556 on 10-of-18 hitting with three homers, a triple, two doubles and an insane 1.278 OBP while scoring ten runs.
• His 16-game hitting streak entering this weekend is the second-longest active streak on the team.
• Mendoza was the only Sun Devil to record hits in all four games in Texas.
• Mendoza was the only Sun Devil to record a hit against No. 7 Texas A&M in the first game of the Globe Life Series, in fact recording the only two hits in the shutout loss. 

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS

• Ben Jacobs has put together an impressive season for ASU and done so in a number of roles, making nine starts while coming out of the pen 10 times.
• Jacobs has a team-best 92 strikeouts this season over just 60.2 innings.
• The 92 strikeouts are third-best in the league but his 13.65  K/9 is easily tops in  league among players with at least 35 innings pitched this year with only Stanford's Matt Scott (12.05) coming close. He is 16th in the country in the category and 47th in total strikeouts.
• The 13.65 K/9 is currently the second-best single-season mark for an ASU pitcher since 1998, trailing only Ryan Burr's 14.37 tally in 2015. 
• Jacobs struck out a career-best 11 hitters in his Friday night win over USC, earning a quality start with a career-best 6.1 innings of work while allowing just a single run. He added a second quality start in 6.0 scoreless innings against Stanford with nine strikeouts.
• Jacobs' only struggle has been keeping the ball in the park with 14 of his 54 total hits allowed this year being homers and accounting for 19 runs  of his 36 total earned runs allowed. 
• Jacobs has been especially deadly against lefties, holding left-handed batters to just a .213 average on 17-of-80 batting this year.

GRABBING THE BULL-PEN BY THE HORNS

• The Sun Devil bullpen has made a habit of escaping jams under pitching coach Sam Peraza, stranding 1,399 baserunners over 169 games, an average of 8.2 stranded opponent runners per game. ASU has stranded 457 in 56 games this season.
• Ryan Schiefer has a 3.89 ERA over 41.2 innings and 22 appearances - all out of the pen - holding opponents to a .211 average overall.  Schiefer has given up just 31 total hits on the season. He leads the team with three saves this season and also leads the team in stranding 21 inherited runners on the year, allowing just 8-of-29 to score. 
• Hunter Omlid has come on strong of late in 17 relief appearances. He has stranded 10 of his 14 inherited runners on the year. His 11 total strikeouts against Utah Valley were his most at the Division I level, trailing only a 12-strikeout game while at Central Arizona in 2021. It was the most strikeouts for an ASU relief pitcher since Tyler Thornton struck out 11 in 7.0 innings against Rhode Island on April 30, 2021. 
• ASU relief pitchers have inherited 150 baserunners this season, of which only 60 have scored (40.0).  Ryan Schiefer, Matt Cornelius and Matt Tieding all inherited the bases loaded against #24 Kansas State when they entered the game and all got inning-inning strikeouts. 
• Scheifer paces the category, stranding 21 of his 2=9 inherited runners, Sean Fitzpatrick has done so on 3-of-19, Hunter Omlid on 4-of-14 and Matt Cornelius on 6-of-14.
• Recording the first out when coming into the game out of the pen has been a highlight for several bullpen members, with Cole Carlon and Sean Fitzpatrick leading the way in retiring 18 of the 24 and 25 first batters they've faced, respectively.
• ASU's 17 strikeouts against Ohio State AND Cal State Fullerton are the most by a Pac-12 team this season. ASU is also one of just four teams in the league to one-hit an opponent this year.
• Last season, the bullpen posted a 5.62 ERA with 22-7 record in decisions and 11 saves. The squad had 234 strikeouts to 130 walks (over 274.0 innings) and held opponents to .270 batting. While not entirely electric, it was a marked improvement from previous season where the 2022 Sun Devil bullpen had a 6.71 ERA for the season with a 13-19 record in decisions with 231 strikeouts to 170 walks (over 271.0 innings) and a .299 average against.

HEADED TO THE GAP

• The Sun Devils are tops in the Pac-12 and second in the country with 142 doubles this year in 56 games and the 2.54 doubles per game are eighth in the nation. The total is 18 more than any other team in the Pac-12.
• 15 different Sun Devils have multiple doubles this season - the most of any school in the Pac-12. 
• Ryan Campos is the Pac-12 leader with 25 doubles this year - a tally good for 3rd nationally. Brandon Compton is sixth in the league with 16. Nick McLain has 15, Jacob Tobias has 13, Harris Williams and Ethan Mendoza have 11 and Kien Vu has 10, giving ASU a Pac-12 leading seven players that have reached double digits in the category.
• ASU has multiple doubles in 39 games this season and at least one double in 51 of 63 games.
• The team is now fifth of ASU team's since 1998 in the category.
• ASU got a slow start in the doubles category last season but came alive in the second half of the year. After having just 13 in the first 11 of the season, ASU finished with 108 to find itself in the Top-100 prior to the NCAA Tourney after being ranked as low as 232 through the first month of the season. 
• The team recorded a double in 45 of 55 games overall with multiple doubles in 26 of those.
• Luke Keaschall finished seventh second in the entire country with 25 doubles .
• The Sun Devils recorded 134 doubles in 2022, good for 19th in the nation and third in the Pac-12.  The 127 doubles during the regular season were the most for a Sun Devil team in the REGULAR SEASON in the BBCOR era (since 2011) and tied for the fifth-most in a regular season since 1998.
• ASU had at least one double in all but six games in 2022 and multiple doubles in 36 of 58 games.

CHICKS DIG THE LONG BALL

• The Sun Devils have 101 homers this year, good for 21st nationally and surpassing the program's BBCOR record of 94 from the 2019 season. ASU became just the eighth Sun Devil team in the program's illustrious history to reach 100 home runs and the first to do it since having 101 in 1990. The 2024 Sun Devils are the fastest to reach triple digits in the category in program history, doing so in 56 games.
• Currently, five Sun Devils have reached doublle digit homers (Ryan Campos, Kien Vu, Brandon Compton, Jacob Tobias and Nick McLain), marking the first time at ASU since 1993 that five players accomplished the feat (Todd Cady, Doug Newstrom, Antone Williamson, Paul Lo Duca, Jacob Cruz). This is the first season that even four had reached the tally since 1994.
• 11 different Sun Devils have multiple homers - second-best in the Pac-12 - and 13 have homered overall, which is also the second-most in the league.
• The 2024 Sun Devils are the first ASU team to have 13 players homer since the 2008 squad also had 13. 
• ASU homered once in each of the three games against Oregon State, notable as the Beavers had allowed just 10 homers all season entering the weekend and just five total at Goss Stadium. 
• ASU had six homers in its road series against UCLA, the most allowed by UCLA in a three-game series this year. ASU had four in each of its first two games against USC, the most the Trojans had allowed in a game all year. ASU had five in a game against UC San Diego, the most it had allowed and had four in two of its games against UW, also the most the Huskies had allowed. With the team's five-homer game against Stanford on Sunday - the most the Cardinal had allowed at the Sunken Diamond since 2000 - ASU now has five-straight series in which it has recorded at least one game with the most home runs allowed by that opponent this season.
• The Sun Devils had eight homers in the Oregon series. Unfortunately, all came of the solo variety. 
• The Sun Devils continue looking for the big hit with runners on base as ASU has 49 solo homers on its 101 this season. Of the team's 49 solo homers, however, 23 were of the leadoff variety and didn't give anyone a chance to be on base while five others came as part of back-to-back homers and thus, the same principle.
• The big homers with men on base, however, have increased in the last month. Five of ASU's six homers against UCLA were two-run shots and 5 of 10 against USC were multi-run bombs, as were five of its seven against UC San Diego. Seven of the ten homers against Washington were multi-run shots. Four of the 11 homers against Stanford were three-run bombs while another was a two-run shot.
• The Sun Devils hit 19 more homers during the 2023 season (83) than it did the prior year. 12 different players logged a home run last season for ASU and 10 had multiple home runs.
• Last season, ASU had eight different players with at least six homers - more than any other team in the Pac-12.
• The Sun Devils had seven players with at least seven homers last year - two more than any other team at ASU has had since at least the 1998 season. ASU had five players with at least seven homers in 2022, tied for the second-most at ASU since 1998.  The Sun Devils have six players with at least seven homers this season as well, with several still in striking distance with at least eight games remaining.
• ASU's 83 homers last season were 56th in the country prior to the NCAA Tournament. 
• The better news was ASU finally started the get pumps with runners on base. 37 of the team's last 66 Sun Devil home runs last year came with runners on base after 14 of the first 17 this season were solo shots. Of the 26 solo shots, 17 were leadoff homers and thus not given the opportunity to happen with runners on base.
• The timing of the home runs  improved immensely over the second half of the 2022 season as well. On 24 of the final 37 homers on the year, ASU had at least one runner on base. That was notable as ASU had runners on base just eight times on the teams first 27 homers. 
• Of the nine position players with at least 30 starts in 2022, all nine had multiple home runs. ASU had ten total players with multiple homers.

COMING IN HOT

• This season, ASU has posted 67 3+ run innings and 41 4+ run innings. 21 times this season, ASU has scored five or more runs in an inning.
• The Sun Devils thrived in the big innings a year ago as well, 12 times recording five or more runs in an inning. The team recorded 51 innings with three or more runs scored - both tallies in danger of being surpassed by this year's squad
• ASU has recorded 10 or more hits in 39 of 56 games this season and in nine-straight games and 16 of the last 17 .ASU's 642 total hits this season are tops in the Pac-12 and 3rd nationally.
• ASU has reached double digit scoring in 13 of the last 16 games.
• The Sun Devils' recent offense surge has boosted its team slugging percentage to .550 on the year, good for second in the Pac-12 and 12th nationally. The batting average is up to .318 for the year, tops in the Pac-12 and 10th nationally.
• The Sun Devils are second in the Pac-12 in averaging 8.4 runs per game and, 30th nationally
• ASU has scored 133 runs in the 7-10th innings this season, and has scored 50 runs in the seventh inning of games alone.
• The big change for ASU recent has been scoring early, as ASU now has 72 first-inning runs and 65 third innings runs, outscoring opponents 61-35 in the latter.
• The team posted 52 runs in the eighth inning of games last season, just under a run per game. The team bat .326 in the eighth inning of games with a .526 slugging percentage. The squad had 25 home runs total in innings 7-9 - easily surpassing its total of 17 from the previous season.

HOLD ON TO YOUR SEATS

• ASU did its part to shake off some of that bad mojo from the 2022  in close games last year, winning seven one-run games (going 7-3 after going just 1-7 in such games in 2022) and 18-9 in games decided by three runs or less - a category ASU was 14-16 in in 2022. 
• This season, ASU is 15-13 in games decided by three runs or less. The team is 8-3 in one-run games but oddly gone an unsightly 3-8 in two-run games.. ASU's eight wins in one run games are the most since the team had nine in the 2017 season.
• The walk-off win against UNLV was ASU's sixth this season as a result of a ninth or extra-inning lead change, with walk-offs against Oregon, GCU and UW (10th inning) and UNLV and ninth-inning go-ahead runs on the road against Arizona and UNLV.
• ASU has won four games this year when trailing after eight innings and five games when trailing OR tied after 8. The team had five wins when trailing or tied after eight in 2016 and nine in 2015. ASU's four games in which it trailed after eight innings are the most since the team had five such victories in 2006. 
• ASU trailed at one point in 38 of its last 53 victories dating back to last season and all but 11 of its wins this season, though it has flipped the script on that in the last couple weeks when it won six of seven (vs. Utah, at Fullerton, 2x at UCLA, 2x vs. USC) without trailing at any point and won all three Stanford games from start to finish.
• Last season, ASU was incredibly efficient at closing games out, going 24-4 when leading after six, 27-1 when leading after seven and 29-0 when leading after eight. This season ASU is 27-2 when leading after six, 25-2 after seven and 23-1 after eight. The loss of a ninth-inning lead in the second game against Oregon marked the first time ASU had lost a game when leading after eight innings since Feb. 25, 2022 against BYU (led 4-2, lost 6-5). The Sun Devils had won 56 consecutive games when leading after eight innings prior to that. 
• In two-plus seasons under Willie Bloomquist, the Sun Devils have shown that no opponent lead is safe, showing off plenty of grit in erasing multi-run deficits. ASU had nine wins last season when trailing by at least three runs at some point in the game and four of those by at least five. 
• ASU has nine wins this season when trailing by three or more, including all three this last weekend.
• In 2022, the seven-run deficit overcome by the Sun Devils to defeat and take the series from Cal was the most since March 3, 2000 against Arizona. 
• ASU doubled down at that last season with the victories over North Dakota State and GCU, overcoming a 7-0 deficit in both (and 9-2 in entering the eighth against GCU) for victories in both.
• ASU came from behind 13-6 on Saturday against UNLV to walk it off in the ninth - the fourth seven-run comeback in the Bloomquist era.
• Three times in 2022, ASU rallied from a deficit of five or more runs to tie or win the game - the first time that had happened since 2010 (also 3). ASU surpassed that and won four games last season in which it trailed by five runs. 
• The Sun Devils have four such games this season, adding their10th and 11th games doing so under Willie Bloomquist on Friday and Saturday (five runs and seven runs), improving to 9-2 in games that featured a five-run comeback at some point under Bloomquist. 

DO I KNOW YOU?

• The Sun Devils welcome an incredible 27 new faces to the roster in 2023. The class features D1Baseball's No. 23 freshman group in the country and the No. 25 transfer class, a year removed from posting the No. 2 transfer class in the nation.
• The roster will feature 11 freshman arms, an incredible tally considering the 2022 team didn't have a single freshman arm on the roster. 
• Thomas Burns is slated to become the first true freshman pitcher to start on opening night since the 2006 season when Ike Davis did it. 
• The team will feature two new middle infielders for the second consecutive season after having at least one returner up the middle from 2018-22.
• Harris Williams, an All-WCC player at San Francisco last season, was the only transfer player named to the Preseason All-Pac-12 team aa voted upon by the league's coaches. 
• The Sun Devils added another pair of All-WCC players in USF's Mario Demera and Santa Clara's Eamonn Lance. 
• In addition to the guys playing on the field, the team also welcomed a slew of new faces on the coaching and support staff, highlighted by former Central Arizona College head coach Anthony Gilich as the team's third paid assistant, taking advantage of new NCAA legislation allowing for there to be a third coach. Sun Devil legend Brett Wallace also joined the staff as the Director of Quality Control and Offensive Strategy. 

THE BURN(S) UNIT

• Thomas Burns became the first true freshman to start on the mound for the Sun Devils on Opening Night since Ike Davis in 2006.
• The youngster was electric in his debut, allowing just a single hit in his 5.0 innings and one run en route to earning his first career win. Burns struck out seven and walked just one batter in the effort. 
• Burns tossed a career-best 7.0 innings in ASU's Friday night victory over Arizona, allowing just one run for ASU's first quality start of the season.
• Burns has been sidelined with shoulder inflammation the last three weekends. 
• 11 of the 16 runs scored against him this season have come by way home runs, coming off five solo homers, a three-run shot against Texas A&M, and three by way of homer against Washington State (a two-run shot of his own and an inherited runner scoring on another pitcher's home run allowed).
• In fact, he has only given up 23 hits on the year, of which seven have  left the ballpark.
• Right-handed hitters are 10-for-55 (.182) against Burns this season while he has allowed just a .213 average against overall - ninth-lowest in the Pac-12  prior to his injury -  adding 39 strikeouts in just 30.1 innings. 
• Burns has been at his best with runners on the basepath with teams batting just .130 (6-of-46) against him with runners. 
• Prior to his injury, he had stranded 89.6 percent of his baserunners this season - the 14th-highest tally of any eligible pitcher in the country this year and tops in the Pac-12.
• Prior to his recent absence, Burns was seventh in the Pac-12 in hits allowed per nine innings (6.82) and third in the Pac-12 in strikeouts per nine innings (11.57). He had struck out 28.5 percent of the batters he has faced this year, a tally good for sixth in the Pac-12.