PHOENIX - Sun Devil Baseball’s Landon Hairston was named a finalist for USA Baseball’s 2026 Golden Spikes Award, as well as joining teammate Nu’u Contrades in being named an All-American by a pair of outlets as the postseason awards continued to unveil this week.
Hairston’s inclusion as one of the three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award marks him as the 10th finalist in Arizona State’s illustrious history. The program lays claim to three Golden Spikes Award winners through history behind Bob Horner - who won the inaugural award in 1978 - Oddibe McDowell (1984), and Mike Kelly (1991). Hairston is Arizona State’s first finalist for the award since Mike Leake in 2009. Hairston is the Big 12’s first finalist since 2022.
Hairston was additionally named a First Team All-American as an outfielder by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America and Perfect Game. Contrades was honored as a third-team by both outlets as a second baseman. The duo became the 136th and 137th All-Americans in program history with their selections this week.
Both players also were named to the ABCA All-West Region First Team, as selected by the region’s coaches, marking them eligible for All-America honors from the organization.
Since ASU's first All-American in program history – Sterling Slaughter in 1963 – there have been just eight seasons where the Sun Devils have not produced an All-American. Hairston and Contrades are the seventh and eighth under head coach Willie Bloomquist, joining Cole Carlon (2025), Kien Vu and Ryan Campos (2024), Luke Keaschall (2023), and Joe Lampe and Nate Baez (2022).
Details on the respective seasons of both athletes can be found below.
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Sophomore - Outfielder - Queen Creek, Ariz.
Golden Spikes Award Finalist
Dick Howser Trophy Finalist
USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Invitee
NCBWA All-American – First Team (Outfielder)
Perfect Game All-American - First Team (Outfielder)
Big 12 Player of the Year
ABCA West Region – First Team (Outfielder)
Big 12 First Team - Outfielder
- Landon Hairston finished the season as ASU’s new single season home run king, claiming sole possession of the spot with his 28th of the year at the Big 12 Tournament, good for fifth in the nation
- Hairston entered the NCAA Tournament ranked fifth in the nation with his .413 batting average. He had a 28-game hitting streak ended at UCF earlier in May, which was tied for the fifth-longest in Sun Devil school history.
- Hairston led the team with his 20 doubles this season and, in doing so, he joined Bob Horner’s 1978 season as the only other player to reach the 20/20 club at ASU.
- Hairston remains first in the nation with his 1.368 OPS (min. 3 PA per game) and with his .860 - the latter of which breaking Bob Horner’s long-standing single season school record of .819 (1978)
- Of his 94 hits this season, 50 were for extra bases (28 homers, 20 doubles, 2 triples) - three more than any other player.
- Hairston was the national leader with his four grand slams this season - also tying the ASU school record in the process.
- Hairston’s WAR of 5.29 is third in the country while his 68.38 total Offensive Runs over Replacement is second.
- Hairston finished with 81 RBIs this season, good for fifth in the country. HOWEVER, all 81 RBIs came while hitting as the leadoff batter in the Sun Devil lineup, which was easily the most of any Division I leadoff hitter and the most for ANY leadoff hitter in Division I RBIs for an entire season since at least 2019, surpassing Christian Moore’s 71 over 65 games in 2024.
- The 81 RBIs were the most at Arizona State since Brett Wallace had 83 in 2008.
- Other teams continuously tried to keep Landon Hairston off guard as 71 times this season an opponent has made a pitching change either directly before facing the lefty or within two batters of facing him. And continuously, Hairston showed that it didn’t make a difference.
- His 12 home runs as one of the first three batters an opponent reliever has faced were first in the country. He also had 29 hits and 36 RBIs in that scenario, ranking first in both categories. He batted .518 off new pitchers that faced him within their first three batters faced - fifth-best in the country. His absurd 1.923 OPS off those new pitchers is first in the country. In fact, that was the highest of any player in the country since AT LEAST 2019.
- Hairston was equally a pest as the very first batter of a game, recording a hit to leadoff a game 24 times - the second-highest total in the country (UT Martin’s TJ Grimes, 26) while his four game leading homers are third in the country.
- His .462 average to lead off games is 10th among all players with at least 30 games led off. He has a hit on the FIRST PITCH of a game nine times - two more than anyone else in the nation.
- Hairston is third in the country with his 82 runs scored and opponents intentionally walked Hairston 13 times this season - the third-highest total in the country.
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Sophomore - Outfielder - Ewa Beach, Hawai'i
Dick Howser Trophy Semifinalist
NCAA Lincoln Regional Most Outstanding Player
NCBWA All-American – Third Team (2B)
Perfect Game All-American - Third Team (2B)
ABCA West Region – First Team (2B)
Big 12 First Team - Second Base
- Nu’u Contrades was ASU’s most veteran presence in his fourth year with the program - a rarity in the modern age of college baseball. Contrades was selected by his teammates as a Co-Captain of the 2026 squad entering the year.
- Contrades homered four times in the NCAA Lincoln Regional en route to being named the Most Outstanding Player. The four homered bumped him to 21 for the season - tied for 13th in Sun Devil history
- Since the start of April, Contrades had at least one extra-base hit in 20 of 30 games. His 25 extra-base hits in that time were ninth in the country as he vaulted to the No. 2 ranking among second basemen by D1Baseball in their Week 12 update. His .770 slugging percentage since the start of April was 29th nationally.
- Contrades’ 21 homers were sixth in the conference and 21st nationally despite missing a decent chunk of time this season and batting off one leg for the majority of the season.
- Contrades’ 408.68 average distance on his homers is 16th in the nation among players with at least 15 homers this season.
- Contrades homered four times off relievers entering the game as the first batter they faced, tied for fourth-most in the country. His 11 RBIs in that scenario were tied for 20th in the country.
- Contrades struck out just 28 times this season (13.8 percent on 202 ABs). Last season, he notably struck out just 30 times - compared to 28 walks - on 181 ABs on the year (16.6 percent) after striking out 51 times with just 9 walks his freshman season on 217 ABs (23.5 percent).
- Unfortunately the veteran was down a couple games while dealing with a hamstring injury sustained in the finale against LMU, missing nearly three weeks and the first two weekends of Big 12 action. Even with returning to the lineup, Contrades has operated mostly under 100 percent with the injury lingering.
- Still Contrades was 10-for-10 on stolen base attempts this season and his 91.7 career stolen base percentage (33-of-36) is the highest among all ASU players since 1999 with at least 30 bases stolen.
- Prior to his injury, Contrades was credited with saving 3.09 runs on infield ground balls this season, good for 34th in the nation but third among all second basemen.