Hairston’s huge day leads ASU to 2nd ranked mercy-rule victory

PHOENIX– Sophomore 1B/OF Landon Hairston’s reign of dominance against the college baseball world continued Friday night, notching three hits, two home runs and eight RBIs as No. 22 Arizona State (20-6 overall, 5-2 conference) took down No. 17 West Virginia, 14-4 in eight innings. 

“That’s a good team over there,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Offensively, one of the better approaches we’ve had all year long.”

It was their third straight win against a ranked opponent, with the last two coming against formerly No. 17 TCU. Bloomquist mentioned before the season started that he wanted a challenging non-conference schedule. While the team went 1-4 over a stretch of five straight ranked SEC opponents, the team has rebounded very well.

“We could play a very weak schedule if we wanted to, and not find out how good we are until we get to conference, and then we get our teeth kicked in,” Bloomquist said. “Playing that early tough schedule allowed us to find out, ‘hey, we got to get better in these areas’, and it’s early enough where we can make those adjustments.”

Hairston-mania continues

Hairston has now hit 10 home runs over his last 13 games. Since going 0-4 in the first game of the TCU series two weeks ago, Hairston is batting .649.

He’s recorded 18 RBIs over that nine-game span. In addition to his efforts with the bat, Hairston also made a sensational diving catch in the sixth inning that saved at least one run, if not two, and stole a base.

When Hairston had the opportunity to hit his second grand slam of the game in the fifth inning, he was given the Barry Bonds treatment, getting walked on four pitches.

“It was a fun night,” Hairston said. “Everything was clicking. It’s pretty rare to have a game like that.”

If Hairston wasn’t hot enough, the return of senior infielder Nu’u Contrades has dumped gasoline on what was already a combusting offense. In his first two games after returning from a hamstring injury, Contrades has hit three homers with five runs batted in.

Two of those home runs today, the first of the two going 440 feet.

Pitching does its job

Junior left-hander Cole Carlon was serviceable, not amazing, but did more than enough to get the job done against the top-ranked team in the Big 12. He got through 4 1/3 innings on 95 pitches, striking out seven but allowing three runs to cross on eight hits.

Sophomore right-hander Taylor Penn came in on relief and gave ASU everything they needed, allowing just one run to cross over his 2 2/3 innings of work.

ASU will continue its ranked-on-ranked series with the Mountaineers Saturday at 6:35 p.m. MST. Junior right-hander Alex Overbay is the projected starter for the Sun Devils as they seek their third straight Big 12 series victory.