Advertisement
Published Mar 1, 2020
No. 8 ASU baseball beats Nebraska 14-1 for a second-straight blowout win
Jesse Morrison
Staff Writer

Drew Swift, Trevor Hauver and Hunter Jump had big nights and Tyler Thornton had another quality start as No. 8 ASU baseball took care of Nebraska 14-1 on Saturday at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.


Swift was with 3-3 with a walk, two RBIs, a run scored and a sacrifice fly. Hauver was 1-1 with a home run, three RBIs, three walks and three runs scored. Jump was 2-4 with three RBIs and had a bases-clearing double in the bottom of the fifth to put ASU up 6-1 and open things up.

“I think the nerves just calmed down after the first weekend and confidence came through and so everyone’s starting to swing it,” Swift stated.


Thornton was strong for the Sun Devils (8-3) going six innings and striking out eight Cornhuskers’ batters while allowing just one run.


“Our game plan’s just to go after them with fastballs and today they hit it pretty well so I had to go to my slider a lot,” Thornton said. “But I felt pretty good with it.”

Nebraska struck first with an Aaron Palensky solo home run in the top of the second inning. The Cornhuskers led 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth inning when Hauver’s homer tied the game at one apiece.


Later in the inning, Erik Tolman flied out to left field and Hunter Jump was able to tag up to give ASU the 2-1 lead. The sacrifice fly proved to be the game winner.


The Sun Devils loaded the bases in each of the next four innings.


In the bottom of the fifth inning, with the bases loaded, Hauver was walked allowing Dusty Garcia to score to put ASU up 3-1. With the bases still loaded, Jump’s double put ASU up 6-1. Swift then doubled in Jump to extend the Sun Devils’ lead to 7-1.


ASU coach Tracy Smith thought Jump’s double was the spark for ASU in the game.


“I thought Jump’s hit got us going and created that separation because up to then it was a pretty tight ballgame,” Smith explained.


In the bottom of the sixth inning, with the bases loaded, Hauver flied out to left field allowing Nick Cheema to score to put ASU up 7-1.


The Sun Devils tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the seventh to lead 10-1 heading to the eighth inning.


In the bottom half of the eighth inning, ASU pinch hitter Brian Kalmer hit a two-run double, Swift hit his sacrifice fly and freshman Alex Helmin hit a pinch-hit single to wrap up the scoring for ASU.


Bryce Barnett struck out three batters in the top of the ninth inning and ASU won its second game of a three-game series with Nebraska.


It was an important win for ASU, who won 13-5 last night, to avenge last year's series.


“Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing last year for us,” Hauver said. “Obviously because we came out and smoked them in the first game Friday night and then I think we lost by like one or two runs the next two games and we’re definitely a lot better team than they were. So just coming out today and blowing them out was huge for us going forward.”


ASU wraps up its three-game set with Nebraska on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. MST at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

Advertisement