Sun Devils fall to Titans 3-2 in 14 innings

At one point, it seemed like Saturday night’s winner’s bracket game between the Cal State Fullerton Titans and the Arizona State Sun Devils would never end.

As Saturday night turned into Sunday morning, the Titans and the Sun Devils were locked in a 2-2 tie going into the bottom of the 14th inning.

ASU’s sixth pitcher of the night, Eder Erives, was working his second inning of work when he ran into trouble.

Lead-off hitter Chris Hudgins was hit by the pitch to begin the inning. Erives then walked Josh Vargas and David Olmedo-Barrera later in the inning to load the bases for Jerrod Bravo.

Erives was unable to manage his control of the ball and ended up walking Bravo to walk in the winning run from third base.

The Titans won it 3-2 in 14 innings and remain undefeated (2-0) in the regionals.

Way back in the first innings, ASU got things going in the top of the inning when Johnny Sewald doubled to left field.

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A wild pitch by Titans starter Thomas Eshelman advanced Sewald to third and a throwing error by catcher A.J. Kennedy allowed Sewald to score the game’s first run.

ASU would get another run in the second inning courtesy of a solo big fly off the bat of Andrew Snow.

The Titans answered back with a run of their own in the bottom of the second and eventually tied things up in the bottom the sixth.

And that was pretty much it until Erives allowed the winning run to score in the 14th via the walk.

As stated earlier, ASU used six pitchers during the game. Seth Martinez got the start way back when and pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on 4 hits.

ASU then saw Eli Lingos, Darin Gillies, Brett Lilek, Ryan Burr and Erives all take the mound.

The loss went to Erives (1-1), his first of the year.

The Sun Devils saw a great outing from their closer, Ryan Burr, who ended throwing 4 1/3 innings, giving up no runs and just two hits.

The Titans, meanwhile, only used two pitchers in this game.

That’s right, two.

Starter Thomas Eshelman went the first nine innings and threw about 140 pitches. He gave up just two runs on seven hits and recorded 14 strike outs.

The rest of the game was pitched by Tyler Peitzmeier (3-3), who also picked up the win in this one.

Prior to this game, the Sun Devils were 31-29 all-time against Cal State Fullerton, including 7-11 in the postseason.

Up next, ASU, the number 2 seed, will take on the number 4 seed Pepperdine on Sunday at 4 p.m. as they continue on in the regional tournament.