Fresh off losing its first series of the season, the No. 21 ASU baseball team has no time to recover.
The Sun Devils (12-4-1, 1-2 Pac-12) will play in their first mid-week road game Tuesday against Big 12 foe Texas Tech in Lubbock.
The Sun Devils won their first mid-week game of the season last Wednesday 4-3 over New Mexico in 11 innings but struggled in their opening Pac-12 series against Washington State, allowing 27 runs over the three games.
Tuesday’s game against the Red Raiders (14-8, 2-1 Big 12) will be another tough test as Texas Tech boasts a 10-2 home record and are fresh off winning its first Big 12 series of the season over Texas.
Starting pitchers for Tuesday have yet to be announced, but it’s likely the Sun Devils will go pitcher by committee as they did last week against the Lobos.
The Sun Devil pitchers could see a break offensively as the Red Raiders hit only .255 collectively as a team and have only two hitters batting over .300 on the season.
The Red Raiders' strength is in their pitching staff. It boasts six pitchers with sub 3.00 ERAs. Junior starter Trey Masek has allowed only one run in 40 innings of work this season.
The Sun Devils will likely miss Masek, but the Red Raiders sport an overall team ERA of 3.18.
After the mid-week tilt against the Red Raiders, the Sun Devils will travel north to Corvallis, Ore., to take on Oregon State in ASU's road Pac-12 series of the season.
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
