(Photo: Nicole Hernandez/WCSN)
Fight and comebacks have been a story of the Arizona State Sun Devils season all year long. Having been under .500 since their series against Oregon State, ASU won its first two games against Cal State Bakersfield, putting them in a position to potentially even up their record for their first time since March 17th.
Chaz Montoya got the win on Friday, Eli Lingos pitched the Devils to victory on Saturday and on Sunday, head coach Tracy Smith sent veteran Eder Erives to the mound with hopes of a series sweep.
Those hopes were swept away, however, by the CSUB Roadrunners, who beat ASU 8-6 on Sunday to salvage the series.
Despite the loss, sophomore Gage Canning continued his hot hitting on his birthday, going 3-for-4 with a run scored in the loss. Canning notched 10 hits in 13 at-bats over the weekend against the Roadrunners.
“He comes to play every day,” head coach Tracy Smith on his series against Bakersfield. “You try to, for your guys […] particularly the younger guys, say ‘hey this is the way you want to do it.’ I thought he led tremendously. Every at-bat, didn’t give at-bats away.”
Canning’s success at the plate goes beyond this series, however, as the outfielder is 31 for his last 61, giving him a batting average of .508 in his last 15 games. In addition, the right fielder has scored a run in nine straight games and has driven in 13 runs in his last 10 games.
Beyond Canning, ASU’s offense gave the team a chance to win, with five different players recording a hit and three players driving in a run.
On the base paths, though, the Sun Devils struggled, with both Lyle Lin and Hunter Bishop getting thrown out at different points in the game.
In the bottom of the sixth, ASU scored five runs after CSUB put up a five of their own in the top half of the inning. The first four runners of the inning reached base, but when Carter Aldrete flied out to right field and Andrew Shaps came in to score, Lyle Lin attempted to tag up from second and was thrown out. As a result, the Devils went from having the bases loaded and no outs with a run already in to having a runner on first with two outs.
“Lyle’s a tremendous player, but he can’t run,” Smith admitted after the loss. “We’re down three or four at that time, there are no chances, you’re not going to take chances. He had extended himself off the bag, it’s just really not being self-aware of A, watching that right fielder show he can throw the baseball all weekend and I’m a slow baserunner, therefore I don’t go […] Just a bad decision.”
Then in the ninth, Bishop reached on a fielding error, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. With one out and home run leader Tyler Williams on deck, Taylor Lane lined out on a sharply hit ball to the right field corner, a ball that was misread by Bishop, who took off on the crack of the bat. Bishop was nearly to third by the time the ball was caught, making it an easy double play for the final out of the game.
“That’s just not understanding the game,” a frustrated Smith said on the base running mistakes. “The situation of the game, just understanding the game. You’re down two runs, it means nothing, your runs means absolutely nothing and to get doubled off in a situation like that is inexcusable.”
Beyond the hitting and running, Arizona State’s pitching struggled, giving up 16 hits in the loss.
In the five-run sixth inning for Bakersfield, the Sun Devils used three pitchers, beginning with Eder Erives and ending with Sam Ferri.
Erives, whose fastball hovered around the mid-80s all game long, pitched the first five innings, allowing one run on three hits, but after loading the bases with singles, was relieved in favor of Ryan Hingst, who got an out, but allowed three base runners. Hingst would then hand the ball off to freshman Sam Ferri to make his collegiate pitching debut.
In high school, Ferri was not only his team’s starting catcher, but closer too. With a wrist injury that was keeping him from catching, ASU’s head coach decided to give Ferri time on the mound.
“We’ve been really inconsistent in the middle and back end, just pitching-wise, basically all season,” Smith noted. “With his wrist situation right now, we’ve got one of our more competitive kids, better kids just sitting around because he can’t do anything […] We’ve looked at him in some simulated games earlier in the week just to get him out there and you saw today, he’s got a chance to help us down the stretch. I wanted to see it in a quote on quote real situation so that’s why we brought him in there in that situation.
Ferri came in and immediately gave up two base hits, allowing the two runners he inherited from Ryan Hingst to score. However, he then induced a ground out and fly out to end the inning and lead into what would become ASU’s answer to the Roadrunner five-spot, a half inning that was capped off with Bishop’s three-run home run.
Reagan Todd took over for Ferri with the score suddenly tied back up. After ASU and CSUB went back and forth for the first six innings, Todd looked to hold over the Roadrunners, but gave up four hits and a run in the seventh, then three more hits and a run in the eighth. Those two runs allowed by Hingst gave Bakersfield an 8-6 lead that would eventually hold to become the final score.
Naithen Drewsnap took over on the mound in the bottom of the seventh and shut down the Sun Devil offense, as he went on to earn his eighth save of the season, pitching three hitless and scoreless innings
“17 baseball games left or whatever, we still control whether we can reach some of the goals we’ve defined for ourselves,” Smith said. [We] have to eliminate the silly, little league, ridiculous mistakes that we made today on the bases to even give ourselves a chance because our margin of error, because of our pitching, is very, very short.”
