Power-hitting Sun Devils topple Huskers

The bats from Arizona State (35-12, 14-10 Pac 12) were on display early and often in Game 1 against the Nebraska Cornhuskers (24-19, 13-8 Big Ten), where the Huskers fell to the Sun Devils by a score of 15-6.

Arizona State quickly showed why they are second in the nation in home runs when leadoff batter Trevor Hauver stepped up to the plate. On a full count, Hauver turned on a ball and sent it to deep right field for a home run and an early 1-0 lead. Once they took the early lead on the Huskers, there was no looking back.

The Sun Devils continued their hit parade throughout the entire game, scoring in every single inning aside from the fifth, sixth, and ninth. Even though the Huskers were able to keep their opponents to under two runs an inning through six, the flood gates opened in the seventh where they scored nine of their 15 runs in innings seven through nine. When it was all said and done, a total of four Sun Devil batters sent a ball over the fence.

What really let the Sun Devils pull away so quickly was their ability to get the leadoff man on base consistently and they did so in every single inning aside from the sixth. In total, five of the eight leadoff batters that reached base scored, setting the tone for almost every inning.

The story again tonight was the lack of production offensively from Nebraska. As a team, the Huskers averaged .250 at the plate compared to a .457 average for their opponents. To go along with the cold bats, twelve batters struck out for Nebraska with five of them looking.

Perhaps the most glaring issue was the inability to not only get runners in scoring position but capitalizing on those opportunities to send runners home. The Huskers had runners in scoring position only six times compared to Arizona State's 18.

While Nebraska improved in this category a bit later in the game, the gap between the two teams is very apparent and shows why Arizona State is one of the top teams in the entire country.

While Arizona State managed to come up with four home runs on the night, the Huskers struggled to get any sort of run production from their offense. Two Husker batters who attempted to match the power of the Sun Devil hitters were first-baseman Luke Roskam and right-fielder Aaron Palensky.

In the second inning, with Arizona State leading 3-0, Roskam sent a ball deep to left field for a solo home run, pulling Nebraska within two runs. Meanwhile, in the fourth, Roskam brought the fans to their feet again when he launched a ball to deep right field only to hit a wall of wind and have the ball fall short at the warning track.

In addition to Roskam, Palensky provided another form of power hitting late in the game. With the Huskers trailing 15-2 in the eighth, Palensky sent a ball over the left-field fence, scoring Carter Cross and Cam Chick to cut the Arizona State lead to ten runs.

Coming into the series with the Sun Devils, it was no surprise that thet could hit the ball extremely well and put them in the position that they are in. No one was less shocked by their hitting ability than head coach Darin Erstad.

When asked what the Sun Devils did well tonight, Erstad was incredibly candid in his response and didn't take anything away from Arizona State. "They hit baseballs really hard and really far, there's not much to say," Erstad said. "We knew Matt [Waldron] would have to be on his game and perfect. He made a couple mistakes and they took advantage of them. When you get down and have some experience in there, those guys aren't going to stop swinging the bats. They can hit and they hit a lot tonight."

Waldron finished the start with 4.0 IP, allowing six runs on nine hits and four strikeouts.

Nebraska and Arizona State return to action on Saturday with a first pitch time of 2:05 PM. Nate Fisher (4-3, 3.47 ERA) will be taking the mound for the Huskers and he will be facing off against RHP Boyd Vander Kooi (4-2, 6.15 ERA).

The game can be streamed live with a paid subscription to BTN Plus and can be heard on the Husker Sports Network (1400 AM Lincoln, 590 AM Omaha).