PHOENIX - For the second consecutive season, Sun Devil Baseball's Spencer Torkelson will shed the Maroon and Gold this summer in favor of the Red, White and Blue as the sophomore infielder has been selected to represent the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and will join the 2019 edition of Team USA in three international friendly series this summer.  
Torkelson is the first Sun Devil to become a two-time selection for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team since Ryan Burr was selected in 2013 and 2014. Torkelson, Burr and Dustin Pedroia represent the only Sun Devils in program history to represent their country on more than one occasion.  
Torkelson joins an illustrious list of Sun Devils to represent their country over the years, including Floyd Bannister (1975), Bob Horner (1976), Kevin Romine (1981), Oddibe McDowell (1984), Dustin Pedroia (2002 and 2003) and current MLB players Mike Leake (2008), Deven Marrero (2011) and Trevor Williams (2012).  
In total, 36 Sun Devils have been selected a total 40 times to represent the United States with Torkelson's addition this summer. Only USC (70) and Stanford (51) have more all-time selections than ASU among all teams in the NCAA.  
After an All-American caliber freshman season, Torkelson has followed that with an equally impressive sophomore campaign for the Sun Devils. Torkelson has 19 home runs this season, second in the Pac-12 and ninth in the country. He has at least one home run in each of the last nine weekend series that the Sun Devils have played - including every single series of Pac-12 play.  
After posting 25 homers as a freshman, Torkelson now has 44 in his career at ASU - tied for sixth in program history despite only being a sophomore and just 12 shy of the Sun Devil school record of 56 held by Bob Horner. He is one home run away from joining Horner as the only other player in ASU history to have 20 or more home runs in consecutive seasons.  
With another big fly, Torkelson would also join former Missouri State First-Round Draft Pick Jake Burger as the only player in the BBCOR era of batting standards to log multiple seasons with 20 or more home runs.  
Torkelson enters this weekend ranked in the Top-10 in nearly every major offensive category, including average (10th/.351), slugging percentage (4th/.688), RBIs (3rd/57), runs (4th/58), doubles (10th/13), total bases (2nd/143), walks (8th/36) and hits (3rd/73) in addition to his spot among the home run leaders. He sits in the Top-30 nationally in home runs, run, RBIs, slugging and total bases.  
Defensively, Torkelson has made huge strides and helped turn 12 more double plays than any other player in the Pac-12 (51). He has just two errors on the year despite being in the Pac-12 in defensive chances (404) and one of those came while he was playing out of position in right field for one inning in a game earlier this season. Among Pac-12 players with 350 or more chances, Torkelson's two errors are third behind Stanford's Andrew Daschbach and Oregon's Gabe Matthews (1).  
2019 TEAM USA BASEBALL
The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team will participate in three international friendship series in 2019, beginning with the 8th USA vs. Cuba International Friendship Series that will take place July 2-6 in Cary, Charlotte, Durham and Hickory, North Carolina. The U.S. will then travel to Taiwan and Japan to compete in the 19th USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series from July 9-12 and the 43rd USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series from July 16-21. For more information on USA Baseball and the Collegiate National Team, follow @USABaseball on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; and @USABaseballCNT on Twitter.