Arizona State junior second baseman Joey DeMichele was named Pac-12 Baseball Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 27- March 4, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott announced yesterday.
DeMichele had a strong showing in four games at the Coca-Cola Classic in Surprise, AZ, going 12-19 at the plate with five extra base hits, including four doubles. DeMichele had 10 RBI's in the tournament and scored six runs.
DeMichele ranks second in the NCAA with a .553 batting average, he is the only Pac-12 player ranked in the top 40. DeMichele ranks fourth in the nation in on base percentage (.617), sixth in slugging percentage (.974) and 10th in total bases with 37. This is DeMichele's second career Pac-12 Player of the Week award and his first this season.
The ASU baseball team went 3-1 in the Coca-Cola Classic last weekend in Surprise, AZ. ASU defeated Saint Louis 9-1 in the opener of the tournament. Brady Rodgers continued his dominance on the mound, pitching a complete game and only allowing one unearned run. DeMichele had five RBI's against Saint Louis, and Trever Allen went 2-4 with two RBI's.
ASU defeated Northern Illinois 4-3 Friday night on a walk off single to right field off the bat of Abe Ruiz. After a 17-2 victory over Winthrop on Saturday, the Sun Devils fell to Saint Mary's 4-3 in 11 innings Sunday evening. A sacrifice fly by Saint Mary's catcher Toby DeMello scored second baseman Chris Murphy in the 11th, after Murphy led off the inning with a triple. Jake Barrett took the loss for the Sun Devils.
ASU will have to deal with their first losing streak of the season as they fell to Texas Tech 8-4 at Packard Stadium last night. Trever Allen went 2-2 with two RBI's for the Sun Devils in a losing effort. Tech used a four run seventh inning to put the Sun Devils away.
Zak Miller took the loss for the Sun Devils after allowing two runs in 1/3 of an inning. Matthew Dunbar started the game for the Sun Devils and threw three shutout innings before leaving the game. ASU was playing its fifth game in six nights.