Spencer Torkelson is our king of the diamond, and House of Sparky Player of the Year this season for Sun Devil baseball.
Position – First Base
Year – Junior
Position: First Base
Year in School: Junior (Expected to be selected top-5 in MLB Draft)
Stats:
- 17 GS
- 50 AB
- .340 BA
- 1.378 OPS
- 6 HR
- 11 RBI
- 31 BB
Best moments of the season:
This one is a pretty straight shot to say the least. Tracy Smith’s most talented roster he’s accumulated in Tempe was led by the projected No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft who was three bombs shy of holding Arizona State’s all-time home run crown, while having half of his plate appearances result in an extra-base hit or a walk for the year.
It took Torkelson only two trips to the plate to blast his first long ball of the season, coming on opening night vs Villanova in a 4-1 win. It didn’t take long for teams to get tired of pitching to him, opting to simply place him on first base with an intentional walk.
Because teams were so inclined to do this, it led to other Devils burning the opposition. In a series sweeping Sunday win over Boston College, Torkelson was put on first to bring up Trevor Hauver, who was just starting to get hot. He then caught fire.
Hauver drilled a two-run home run to give the Devils a three-run lead in the seventh. They couldn’t afford to walk Torkelson anymore…and that resulted in the first baseman clobbering an opposite field round tripper an inning later.
Then of course, there was the extra-inning thriller where Torkelson was walked in extra innings, only resulting in a Hauver walk-off walk a batter later.
Torkelson was the nation’s leaders in free passes, seven ahead of any other player, and he finished his ASU career with 110 in not even two and a half seasons.
He was undoubtedly well on pace to widen his already-impressive collegiate trophy case, along with potentially helping anchor the maroon and gold to their first trip to Omaha since 2010. He’ll likely soon go down as another coveted product of a college baseball program nicknamed, “MLB U”.
Other POYs