Seven Arizona State baseball players were named to the Pac-12 all-conference team on Tuesday morning. The recognition, which has always come in the days immediately following the regular season, this year precedes the inaugural conference tournament.
The Sun Devils missed out on the highest honors, as designations such as player and pitcher of the year were dominated by the conference’s top dogs. Oregon State’s Jacob Melton took home player of the year, while Stanford swept the rest. The Cardinal claimed pitcher of the year (Alex Wilson), freshman of the year (Braden Montgomery), DPOY (Adam Crampton), Coach of the year (David Esquer), and batting champion (Brett Berrera). Stanford’s well-decorated armada takes on ASU later this afternoon in game one of the tournament.
Nate Báez and Jacob Tobias were named first-teamers. The super utility man Baez was recognized as an infielder, where he spent most of his red hot April and May stationed at second base. Baez turned in a .327 batting average, and his ten home runs ranked second in the team only to Joe Lampe. In a year that saw ASU deal with injury after injury to its key players, Baez was an iron man. Aside from missing a start for illness, he was a mainstay in the lineup.
Tobias, of course, earned the honor as a designated hitter. He batted .287 with seven bombs and nine doubles. The true freshman isn’t known for his speed, but he checked a triple off his college baseball bucket list in March too. With Conor Davis gone, Tobias will fill in as the starter at first base next season. He started there down the stretch as Davis nursed a nagging hamstring injury.
The other five Sun Devil honorees were recognized as honorable mentions. Joe Lampe, Conor Davis, Sean McLain, Ryan Campos, and Brock Peery. Lampe is the most overqualified of the bunch; he had a career year and was probably the team’s best offensive player from wire to wire. He smacked 12 homers and played stellar defense in center field. He’s almost certainly headed to the draft and will be a heavily sought after selection next month.
Davis’s all-conference honor was not foreseen by many outside of the program coming into this game. After missing all of 2021 with a torn ACL, he bounced back by batting .320 with six homers and 36 RBIs. These numbers become more impressive when you consider he was hindered by several small nagging injuries during the last six weeks of the season.
McLain lived up to his preseason hype after a slow start to the year. He ended up starting nearly every game at shortstop and batted .329 while driving in 34 runs.
Ryan Campos was easily the team’s most pleasant surprise. He leads the Sun Devils in batting average at .340 and commands the pitching staff behind the plate like a savvy veteran. In the span of about a month, he went from a guy who would battle for at-bats to a middle of the order everyday starter. He’s poised to be at least a three-year starter at catcher.
Brock Peery is another unlikely story. He was one of the faulty levers of a dysfunctional bullpen early in the year. Bloomquist never lost faith in the submarine right-hander, and it paid off during the second half of the season. He logged 25.1 innings and shrunk a once huge ERA to a respectable 4.62. He closed games for the Sun Devils nearly the entire year.
These seven men and their teammates look to extend their 2022 season beginning Wednesday afternoon against Stanford in the opening round of the Pac-12 Tournament.
