PHOENIX – Arizona State imploded again on Tuesday night.

In the fifth inning of their Pac-12 opener, the Sun Devils watched a one-run deficit to Arizona balloon as the Wildcats scored three times, sent nine batters to the plate and took a commanding four-run lead in their eventual 6-2 Territorial Cup win.

The ball never left the infield in the inning either.

The first Wildcat run scored via a bases-loaded walk. The other two crossed the plate after an error. Each score elicited another frustrated groan from ASU’s largest home crowd of the year, who witnessed first-hand the team’s biggest problem this season: the disastrous – and commonly-occurring – half-inning.

In the fifth, the Sun Devils issued two free passes, hit another batter with a pitch, committed the run-scoring error on a potential inning-ending play, surrendered a stolen base and allowed a bunt single. It was an unoriginal script.

Postgame, coach Tracy Smith was forced to try and explain his team’s latest inexplicably sloppy sequence.

"It seems like, in our losses, we've had that big inning," Smith said. "We've just not shown a strong resilience in cutting that off."

The Sun Devils have been cursed this season by other innings like it. Against Long Beach State last month, the Dirtbags hung a 10-spot in one frame. Last Saturday, UNC-Wilmington blew open a three-run game by scoring four times in the eighth. Though the Wildcats only scored three runs in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game, it was enough to put ASU's Pac-12 opener out of reach.

The reason for the reoccurring breakdowns? There's a couple.

"When you look at our losses this year, your eyeballs take you to two spots: they take you to errors and walks," Smith said after the Sun Devils suffered another six and three respectively.

The lack of command on the mound is most troubling to the ASU skipper, who thinks the Sun Devils are at their best when their pitchers are putting the ball in the zone and allowing their defense to make plays behind them.

On Tuesday though, Alec Marsh and Fitz Stadler combined to throw just 16 of their 33 pitches in the fifth inning for strikes.

"You'd like to make teams earn it," Smith said. "Too many free 90-feets."

The defense hasn’t helped either. Though Smith considers it a strong-point for his team, their young fielders have seen defensive blunders snowball during the futile frames.

On Tuesday, Marsh raced off the mound to field a bunt with one out but slipped as he tried to turn a quick throw to first.

Later, freshman third baseman Gage Workman had a chance to end the inning on a routine groundball but spiked his throw across the diamond; the only thing freshman first baseman Spencer Torkelson could do was knock it down to keep the ball from flying to the dugout, though it didn't keep the Wildcats' fourth and fifth runs of the game from crossing the plate.

"It looked like he goosed it a little bit," Smith said of Workman's errant throw.

Other issues have plagued the Sun Devils too, who dropped their third straight game on Tuesday. Their situational hitting has been poor as they’ve gone just 3-29 from the plate with runners in scoring position during the skid. It's coincided with slumps from Gage Canning (only 2 hits in his last 10 at-bats) and Lyle Lin (2 hits in his last 13 at-bats) after the pair started the season with matching 15-game hitting streaks

"It can't just be those two guys," Smith said. "It's (ASU's offensive struggles) coincided with them cooling off a little bit. Other guys have to step it up."

But nothing has been as demoralizing for ASU than when its self-inflicted mistakes lead to a crooked number hanging on the scoreboard.

"You can handle a loss, like going back to Sunday's loss (3-1 to UNC-Wilmington), I thought both teams played well; just a loss," Smith said. "I feel a heck of a lot differently about that tonight. I think we gave it to them."

The good news for the Sun Devils: their missteps haven’t affected their clubhouse atmosphere, which has improved dramatically from 2017's fractured roster. On Friday, Marsh said that last year “sucked” and that baseball wasn’t fun.

Throughout its rocky beginning to this season though, ASU’s young roster claims its chemistry has stayed consistent.

“I think the leaders on this team now are more lead by example," sophomore Carter Aldrete said on Friday. "It’s not, ‘Do as I say or say as I do.’ It’s just, we’re doing it too so jump on board. Everyone is on board.”

But if their penchant for allowing the big inning persists into Pac-12 play, their improved locker room vibe will matter little.

"We've got to be tougher," Smith said. "We have to have a tougher mindset to overcome that and just shut that off and not add to it."