ASU Drops First Pac-12 Series of the Season
By Blake Benard
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It seems every week the ASU baseball team brings a whole new level to their nick man this season, the Cardiac Devils. This time however they proved human and fell to California for their first Pac-12 series lost of the season.
All season the team has dabbled and flirted with fire, but nearly always emerged unscathed. Be it, closer Ryan Burr coming in with the bases loaded in the eighth inning or walk-off hits against Pac-12 competition, they seemed to prevail under the drama and stress.
This past weekend was much of the same for the ASU baseball team, but they proceeded to drop the last two games of the series in dramatic fashion. on Saturday California walked-off and on Sunday they used an eighth inning rally to go on to take the series. ASU fell to 29-15 on the year and 14-7 in Pac-12 play.
Here’s how the drama unfolded:
Act One: ASU 5, Cal 3
With Seth Martinez on the mound and an early 3-run lead, one would think the game was all but over. Think again. These are the #CardiacDevils after all.
ASU was on the road to take on California and the game started out a pitchers duel. Through the first four innings it remained a scoreless game, however in the fifth the Devils used small ball to put a three spot on the scoreboard.
Senior Trevor Allen, got the inning started with an infield single and moved over to third on a passball and a wild pitch. After an RJ Ybarra strikeout, Andrew Snow was hit by a pitch and that set up Johnny Sewald with runners on the corners. Sewald proceeded to line an RBI doulbd down the right field line to pate Allen. Jake Peevyhouse joined the party with another RBI double in the next at-bat that cleared the bases and put the Devils ahead 3-0.
In the bottom of the fifth, Cal struck back. After Joey Bielek struggled to handle a grounder, Cal first baseman Chris Paul (no not the Clipper PG) rocketed a two-run bomb to put Cal on the scoreboard. Cal followed up with three consecutive singles, but Peevyhouse threw out Mitchell Kranson at the dish to end the inning, limiting the damage. Cal tied the game in the next inning on a two-out RBI from Devin Pearson.
In typical Sun Devil fashion, the game remained tied until the top of the ninth. With one out in the inning Bielek knocked a single and Trevor Allen followed with this second home run of the year to put ASU ahead.
Ryan Burr came in and closed the door in the bottom ninth inning for his 13th save of the year.
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Act Two: Cal 5, ASU 4
The Devils rallied from two one-run deficits, but it was Cal who went home happy after collecting the walk-off win against ASU closer Ryan Burr.
Burr didn’t start the inning, but was brought on with runners on first and second with one down. He induced a groundout, but conceded the walk-off RBI single to Aaron Knapp which evened the series at one game apiece.
Darin Gillies took the loss after Ryan Kellog went 7 2/3 innings allowing four runs on eight hits.
ASU got on the scoreboard with a three-spot in the third inning. Johhny Sewald knocked in one with an RBI double and Jake Peevyhouse followed with another RBI double that scored Snow and Sewald.
Cal tied the game in the third and took the lead in the sixth inning off Kellog. Devin Pearson was a big factor, as he knocked a RBI triple, scored the tying run and shooting the leadoff home run in the bottom of the sixth.
Cal starter Ryan Mason, shut the Devils offense down until the seventh inning when they loaded the bases and scored the tying run on a wild pitch. But with the bases loaded in both the seventh and eighth innings, they couldn’t get the go-ahead run across the board.
Act Three: Cal 8, ASU 6
In the rubber game, California turned the tables on a typically resilient late inning team in ASU and rallied from a two-run hole in the eighth inning to go on to the 8-6 victory.
ASU got on the board early thanks to a David Greer RBI single that drove in leadoff hitter Johnny Sewald. However, a throwing error in the bottom of the frame plagued the Devils and led to Cal scoring two runs thanks to back-to-back two-out RBI singles.
Smashcut to the next inning and Sewald kept doing Sewald-like things as he got on base to start the inning and came around to later score on a Colby Woodmansee RBI single. ASU extended their after Brian Serven drove in Woodmansee with two outs.
David Greer continued the two-out magic with his second RBI of the ball game, a double.
Devil’s starter Brett Lilek put together a decent performance throwing five innings of 4 run ball but didn’t factor in the final decision. But Cal slowly tied the game off Lilek after getting one run in the third and fifth and chased Lilek from the game. ASU got another run across the plate on a sacrifice fly from Snow in the sixth.
Things remained 5-4 until the eighth inning and that was where all hell broke loose. To kick if off, ASU second baseman Jordan extended the Devils lead with his first career home run and everything seemed to be setting up perfectly for the team to win another Pac-12 series. But Eder Erives hit the lead off batter and after a Cal pop-up Darin Gilles came in to keep the Golden Bears off the scoreboard. He got the first hitter to fly out but then gave up four consecutive hits, including a two-run triple from Aaron Knapp and Cal jumped out to the 8-6 lead.
Lucas Erceg come on the ninth and shout out the Devils to pick up his first save of the season and ASU fell by a final of 8-6.
ASU faces their biggest matchup of the year next as they host Pac-12 leading UCLA Bruins this next weekend starting Friday at 6:30 p.m.