Pelio Allows Seven Runs as Eagles Lose 10-4
Mason Pelio gave up a trio of home runs as eighth-ranked ASU's lineup powered the Sun Devils to a comfortable series-opening win.

The dominant storyline through No. 8 Arizona State’s first five games was the lack of hitting. The Sun Devils averaged around eight runs per game last season, but lost pitching duels to Villanova and Oklahoma State and were blanked by Michigan in the early going.
On Friday night, though, it took one powerful swing from third baseman Gage Workman to kickstart a potent ASU offense. Workman launched a three-run shot off of Boston College’s Mason Pelio in the first inning, and it sparked a big day from hitters up and down the Sun Devils lineup en route to a 10-4 series-opening victory.
Pelio allowed seven runs, four earned, across four innings of work. He lasted longer than his ASU (3-3) counterpart, Cooper Benson, but the Eagles (2-3) largely couldn’t capitalize in the early innings before things got out of hand. Benson loaded the bases in each of the first two innings, walked five batters, and didn’t record an out in the third—but only allowed three runs. His replacement, Boyd Vander Kooi, completely closed the door with a seven-inning relief performance in which he allowed a lone run.
ASU also got a two-run home run from Alika Williams and a solo shot from Trevor Hauver, both coming during a four-run fourth inning that broke open a tie game. The Sun Devils put up another crooked number in the seventh off of a trio of BC relievers and finished with double-digit runs for the first time in 2020.
Assorted Notes
Vander Kooi was a big reason why the Sun Devils were able to pull away. He entered with the bases loaded and nobody out in the top of the third inning and got back-to-back groundouts, the first of which resulted in a double play. After that, he was largely untouchable—save for a RBI groundout from Cody Morissette in the sixth—over seven innings of relief. The 6-foot-5 junior set down 12 of the last 13 batters he faced and finished with six strikeouts to earn the win.
BC’s lineup jumped all over Benson in the early going. They had three hits in the first—with Jack Cunningham bringing in a run with a single—and two more in the second. Then, they loaded the bases and scored a run in the third on the strength of a single, two walks, and a hit batsmen to chase the freshman. The Eagles will be kicking themselves that they couldn’t push across more then three runs against him, though. They were undone by a bases-loaded strikeout from Lucas Stalman in the first, a bases-loaded lineout from Joe Suozzi in the second, and the aforementioned groundouts off of Vander Kooi in the third.
Still, BC’s big-name hitters looked strong in the early going. Cunningham started the night 3-for-3 with a trio of singles, while Brian Dempsey had a pair of singles as well. Luke Gold showed patience with a pair of walks and then had a potential RBI single snatched out of the air by Vander Kooi in the fourth.
Not everybody had the best day at the plate, though. Dante Baldelli went 0-for-4 and grounded into a pair of double plays at big moments, while Stalman finished 0-for-3 with a walk.
ASU’s lineup, from top to bottom, looks like it’ll be a tough task to keep off the board these next two games. Spencer Torkelson went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts, but you can’t expect that kind of performance from him very often (more on his three strikeouts in a minute). Workman, Williams, and Hauver all showed pop with impressive home runs—Hauver’s left his bat at 109 mph per ASU Baseball Analytics. Workman finished 2-for-5 while Hunter Jump went 2-for-4 and Nick Cheema went 2-for-3 out of the eight hole (in place of an injured Sam Ferri). Six different players scored runs in what was an offensive performance that many expect more consistently from the Sun Devils in 2020.
Torkelson launched a double in the first off of Pelio that was crushed into the left-center gap. It seemed a sign of things to come, but other than an intentional walk in the fifth, he was outmatched by a pair of BC pitchers. First, Pelio painted a corner with a low-90s fastball to get him swinging in the second. In the fourth, even after giving up a two-run home run to Williams and seeing his pitch count continue to climb, Pelio came back and got Torkelson swinging again. Then, in the seventh, with the bases loaded and nowhere to put him, freshman Barry Walsh got ahead of him thanks to an excellent offspeed pitch and then froze him for a strikeout looking.
Image Credit: Arizona State Communications