Landon Hairston’s hot streak fueling culture shift for ASU baseball

PHOENIX – Athletes can be dialed in. They can be on a hot streak. A tear. Then there’s whatever Arizona State sophomore outfielder Landon Hairston is on. 

During a 13-game stretch following an 0-for-4 showing in ASU’s loss to No. 17 TCU on March 13, this was Hairston’s slash line: .563/.619/1.291.

He has hit seven home runs in his past six games, nine in his past 10 and 14 in his past 17. Over his 13-game hitting streak, he has driven in 25 runs.

“I don’t think people realize what he’s doing right now,” ASU coach Willie Bloomquist said. “You don’t see this in baseball very often. … Not that I’ve been around this game forever, but I’ve never personally seen something like this.

“(Hitting coach) Jason Ellison played with Barry Bonds, and he was like, ‘Dude, I haven’t seen anything like this, other than Bonds.’ He’s just in one of those zones that doesn’t come around very often.”

The performance brought an avalanche of weekly awards rushing through Hairston’s door, including the Golden Spikes Player of the Week and Big 12 Player of the Week. He was also named to Baseball America’s National Team of the Week for the second week in a row and Perfect Game’s Midseason Player of the Year.

The breakout was expected, but not to this degree. Hairston is a local product, playing under coach Matt Denny at Casteel High School, located 40 minutes south of ASU’s Tempe campus. 

Casteel won back-to-back 5A state titles in 2023 and 2024. The school was promoted to 6A in 2025 and nearly three-peated, ultimately losing to Tempe Corona Del Sol in the championship game. 

Bloomquist noticed immediately that Hairston came to ASU with the tools he needed to succeed, especially with the bat. 

“That’s how he’s been raised,” Bloomquist said last season. “That’s coach Denny at Casteel. Those guys did a phenomenal job developing him to be a very good hitter. When he got here, I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t said a word to him. … I’m not messing with that swing … you go do your thing. If we need to fix something, we’ll fix it. But until then, sometimes the best coaching advice you can give is absolutely nothing.”

Bloomquist compared it to Ryan Campos, who is now in the St. Louis Cardinals organization after it selected him in the fourth round of the 2024 MLB Draft. In Campos’ three seasons at ASU, he hit .369 with 21 home runs. 

Denny said Hairston’s sensational swing was present before he arrived at Casteel. He brought it as a freshman.

Something that also came from before Bloomquist’s time, however, was Hairston’s penchant for trying to do too much at the plate. Denny said that he tried to slug too much his senior season in preparation for the MLB Draft, causing Hairston to struggle throughout the season. 

Despite the accolades Hairston collected as a freshman, he spent a lot of the season feeling like he had to hit home runs.

“I think last year there were some times where I think he was trying to do too much to get in the lineup,” Denny said. “He just needs to be able to hit, use both sides of the field and the extra bases and slugging would come.”

At one point, he even went as far as using first baseman Jacob Tobias’ bat, who weighed 30 pounds more than Hairston. While the results were positive – he homered the day he used it – it was a physical manifestation of the turmoil  brewing inside his head. 

“Last year was a lot of learning,” Hairston said. “Not really sure of where I kind of fit in in a college game. Having a season under my belt and knowing things that work for me, don’t work for me, it’s huge.”

Even when he was trying to do too much, Hairston was still successful, being named to the All-Big 12 first team as a utilityman, and to the Big 12 all-freshman team. He finished with the second-highest batting average in college baseball among freshmen in power four conferences.

Now Hairston is winning multiple awards and is one of the hottest players in the nation.

The key? He was finally able to swing the bat without trying to prove his ability to someone. It may be maturity, it may be the lack of pressure of having to prove himself to scouts or Bloomquist, but he stopped trying to slug, and it has paid off.

“He just looks really comfortable and (is) taking mature swings,” Denny said. “He’s not flying open, selling out for power.

“There’s an elite path there when he’s right. It’s tough to beat him, clearly.”

Hairston is hitting .475 this season, which ranks No. 3 in the country, with 17 homers. His 1.034 slugging percentage leads the country, and his .553 on-base percentage sits at No. 13. 

“It’s a result of good at-bats and sticking to your approach,” Bloomquist said. “I’ve said it before. You can’t go up and try and hit home runs. Those are a result of just consistently good swings. … I’ve coached for years and years, over the five years that I‘ve coached, that’s the most consistent swing that I’ve ever been around.”

Hairston plays four positions and plays them well, with a full-extension diving catch putting a cherry on top of one of his signature days – a game against West Virginia, which is currently ranked No. 13 in the nation by D1 Baseball – where he had two homers and eight RBIs.  

As his production continues to stack, so does the attention that he and his program, which now ranks as No. 25 in the nation according to D1 Baseball, bring to recruits within the state.

The senior class of that 2024 Casteel squad featured five players who committed and played Division I. Four stayed in state, with three of those going to the University of Arizona.

Hairston was the lone commit to the Sun Devils, a decision that has worked well for him and the program. 

“If you’re in high school and if you’re in Arizona, there’s no better place to be,” Hairston said. “You’re representing something way bigger than yourself, your home state. Have all your family at your games, all your friends at your games … no place I’d rather be than here.”

Two of ASU’s key pitchers, Derek Schaefer and Kole Klecker, were both guys who initially passed on ASU despite being from Arizona. Both ultimately returned and have made significant impacts on a team.

“This might be one of those things that keeps guys here,” Denny said. “Obviously, it’s a sexy place to play being in the Valley, and they’re making some noise now.”

Arizona State owns commitments from three of the top 10 prospects coming out of Arizona’s class of 2027, according to Prep Baseball’s rankings. While many of the other top players are going to the SEC, Bloomquist still believes the grass isn’t always greener. 

“I hope the guys that passed on us are seeing what we’re doing,” Bloomquist said. “That’s not a knock to them, but there’s something special going on in Tempe. Things are going in the right direction.

‘We have not arrived by any means. We have a lot of work to do, but you can see that homegrown talent does phenomenal things here in Tempe, and the guys that have passed on us to go elsewhere, they’ll learn. They’ll start learning real quick that this is a special place to play.”

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