(Photo: Kimmy Davis/WCSN)
For the Sun Devils, it’s a good thing that they had already clinched the season series against the Wildcats, because Arizona State had no chance tonight.
The University of Arizona (25-17) defeated Arizona State (28-13) by the score of 17-6. Luckily for ASU, the Sun Devils came into the series with a 3-1 series lead, so even with this loss, ASU still wins the season series, 3-2.
“It’s a fluke, it happens in baseball” head coach Tracy Smith said, in regards to the blowout loss. “If you let it bother you then it becomes a problem, but other than that you just got to say, ‘You know what it’s just one of those games.”
What’s most unsettling about this game is that the Wildcats didn’t just have one great inning; they were harassing ASU pitchers all night and none of them seemed to have an answer.
In fact, ASU went through a total of seven pitchers, and none of them ever provided a solution. Reliever Trevor Baca, who pitched for one inning, was the only ASU pitcher who did not allow any runs. Even worse – the Sun Devils only recorded three strikeouts on the entire game.
“I’m not going to make a whole lot out of this because you play so many games,” Smith said. “That’s gonna happen from time to time and we swung some balls pretty hard and they are doing 360 double plays on us. And you also look at the scoreboard, if a team makes five errors and beats you by double digits, when’s that going to happen?
“So, they are a very good hitting team, and if you are pitching up in the zone with the wind blowing out, that’s not a real good combination. That’s a bit of a concern, I just think it’s one of those baseball games. We’ve played 30-something baseball games and this is the first time that’s happened.”
Once again, the Sun Devils jumped to an early lead, starting with Johnny Sewald scoring off a Jake Peevyhouse double. Peevyhouse would later score from a David Greer groundout.
But ASU wouldn’t have a lead for long, as the Wildcats quickly showed their offensive prowess. After a Bobby Dalbec RBI single, JJ Matijevic blew open the game with a grand slam, and put UA up 5-2 after one.
ASU starting pitcher Ryan Hingst’s outing ended, being relieved by Eli Lingos.
In the second, Trever Allen scored ASU its third run, thanks to an error from UA first basemen Matijevic.
The Matijevic show rolled on in the the second frame, as he launched a triple to right that scored three Wildcats and gave Matijevic 7 RBIs after just two innings.
Despite the huge deficit, the Sun Devils continued to chip away at the UA lead with a Joey Bielek sacrifice fly to score Colby Woodmansee, cutting the UA lead to 8-4.
RBI singles by Kevin Newman and Matijevic in the third and fourth innings extended the Arizona lead to 10-4.
A solo home run by Scott Kingery and a three-run bomb by Dalbec buried the Sun Devils in a 10-spot after five, 14-4.
From then on, Arizona would score three more times, while ASU would only manage two runs from RBIs from Andrew Shaps and Zach Cerbo.
Sophomore catcher Brian Serven was scratched from today’s game with some back issues.
“He [Serven] said he could have gone, but he was not 100 percent healthy,” Smith said. “You know our mindset was we’re second place in the Pac-12, we want to win the conference, and we thought it was good to give him extra time.”
Smith said Serven will be back by the series.
ASU resumes Pac-12 play Friday with game one of a road series against the Cal Golden Bears. Seth Martinez will get the first pitch at 7 p.m.
