When No. 14 ASU took the field Thursday for its first conference game of the season against Washington State, it was joined by sophomore shortstop Andrew Romine for the first time this year.
Romine sat out the first half of the season with a blood clot, but was instrumental in last season's postseason run. He hit .282 with 23 RBIs in 61 games in 2005.
The switch-hitter will add some stability to the Sun Devil infield and should close the revolving door at shortstop, a position where four different players have started this season.
Romine's debut was cut short, however, after play was suspended because of a light outage at Bailey-Brayton Field. At the time of the outage, Washington State (20-7, 2-1 Pac-10) was up 1-0.
The two teams will pick up the game at 3 p.m. today and will play a second game shortly afterwards.
In its only prior doubleheader of the season, ASU (21-7, 0-0) defeated Baylor in both contests.
After the series with the Cougars, the Sun Devils will return home Sunday to take on UA (11-12, 0-1) in the first annual Challenge at Chase.
The game will be played at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix and will be hosted by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
One concern for the Sun Devils will be the travel schedule. Because of a limited amount of flights from eastern Washington, the team will not return to Tempe until Sunday morning.
"It's only a factor if you make it a factor," assistant coach Jay Sferra said of the travel schedule.
Sferra compared the situation to when the team had to travel from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Austin earlier in the year. The Sun Devils did go on to lose to Texas after the 3-hour bus ride, 11-6.
The Challenge at Chase will be the 274th time the in-state rivals have met on the diamond, with the Sun Devils holding a 166-107 advantage.
Reach the reorter at thomas.j.kelley@asu.edu.
