SEATTLE – After a 16-inning marathon on Friday that spilled into the wee minutes of Saturday morning, Sun Devil Baseball didn't allow for any theatrics later in the day with a dominant 8-1 victory over the Washington Huskies to earn the series victory on the road in Seattle.
A six-run fourth inning blew the game open early and ASU (18-8, 7-4 Pac-12) never looked back, riding the hot hand of Justin Fall to his third consecutive quality start and victory.
Fall stranded nine Husky baserunners in 6.0 innings pitched, striking out a season-high seven batters and allowing just a single earned run.
Jack Moss kicked off the big fourth inning with his second home run of the week and Drew Swift had the big hit of the day with a two-out, bases loaded, base-clearing double later in the frame to blow the game open.
Moss, Hunter Jump and Joe Lampe had multi-hit games as the offense record six extra-base hits on its 11 total hits on the game. Kai Murphy added a multi-RBI effort in addition to Moss and Swift.
TURNING POINT
After a slow start the first time through the order and trailing 1-0, the bats came alive in a huge fourth inning. Ethan Long worked a full count HBP with one out to bring Moss to the plate and the big freshman got a hold of one for his second homer of the week after recording his first career one on Tuesday, making it 2-1. ASU put together a two-out rally after that with a Joe Lampe double and Kai Murphy and Seth Nager walk loading the bases. Swift did the rest as he laced one to opposite right center in the deepest part of the ball park to bring all three runs across and weren't done there as Hunter Haas immediately followed with an RBI double to score swift and give ASU a commanding 6-1 advantage.
NOTABLES
After losing three weekend starters in first couple weeks of the season, ASU has worked wonders with its pitching staff and Justin Fall is at the forefront of that. Originally slated to come out of the back end of the pen to start the year, Fall has been exceptional in his role as a weekend starter.
Since moving into the weekend rotation, Fall has given ASU at least five innings in all five starts. He has not allowed more than three earned runs in any of those games and has allowed just six runs total.
Saturday marked the third consecutive quality start for Fall – all coming in victories. He moved to 5-1 on the season and lowered his ERA to 1.95.
ASU has held opponents to five runs or fewer in 36 of 43 games with Jason Kelly at the helm of the pitchers.
ASU has stranded 99 runners in 11 Pac-12 games this season, leaving nine baserunners on per game
In Pac-12 games, opponents are batting just .209 (23-of-110) with runners in scoring position and a paltry .171 (20-of-117) with two outs.
ASU has kept itself in games by working out of jams when it needs to. Pac-12 opponents are just 3-for-17 (.176) with the bases loaded this year and are under .500 (.471 on 16-of-34 chances) with a runner on third and less than two outs.
