It was a rough day at the office for the Arizona State pitching staff as the Sun Devils (11-3) fell to UNLV (7-3) 10-9 at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Tuesday.
Coming into the season, ASU’s pitching staff was lauded as its strength. However, ASU’s hitters were the highlight for the Sun Devils on Tuesday. The ASU lineup had 14 hits, two home runs and continuously bailed out the poor pitching performance.
ASU’s pitching struggles began with starter Joe Hauser. Hauser started the game with a 1-2-3 top of the first inning but struggled from that point on. In the second inning, he allowed back-to-back home runs to UNLV’s second baseman Edarian Williams and then to Myles Denson, who played the past four seasons at ASU.
After allowing a two-out double in the top of the third, Hauser was pulled for Bryce Barnett. Barnett lasted only 2/3 innings. He allowed the runner on second to score and then was taken out after a four-pitch walk with one out in the top of the fourth.
Luckily for ASU, a Drew Swift two-run home run and Hunter Jump scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom of the third had the Sun Devils in the lead when Barnett was removed from the game.
Christian Bodlovich was inserted in place of Barnett and ended up loading the bases. He then walked home the runner Barnett was responsible for, allowing UNLV to tie the game at four. He finished his day with 2/3 innings pitched, two hits allowed, no strikeouts, and the walk.
Jared Glenn replaced Bodlovich for the top of the fifth inning and it looked as though he might be able to settle down the UNLV lineup. However, he allowed a sixth-inning home run and ended up being yanked in the top of the seventh for Graham Osman after walking UNLV’s Austin Kryszczuk and giving up a single.
This was when poor defense came into play. After UNLV’s Jack-Thomas Wold singled off of Osman, allowing the runner at second to score, Eric Bigani hit a blooper into left field, and it got past the diving attempt of ASU right fielder Kai Murphy. Murphy’s defensive gaffe allowed Bigani to turn a single into a triple and put UNLV on top 8-6. Osman was unable to record an out. Brady Corrigan was inserted into the game and was finally able to record outs in the top of the seventh and retired three of the four batters he faced.
“It’s a young player, trying to make a play for his team,” said ASU head coach Tracy Smith. “Absolutely, we’re going to talk about that, and hopefully he understands when and when not to dive in the future, but good baseball player, bad decision.”
The ASU hitters in the bottom of the seventh again bailed out the pitchers. ASU centerfielder Joe Lampe had an RBI-single, and Drew Swift had a two-out, RBI-double to give ASU the 9-8 lead heading to the top of the eighth inning.
It looked as though ASU might be able to pull out the victory but Will Levine, the seventh reliever of the ballgame used by Smith, gave up two RBI singles in the bottom of the eighth. ASU’s lineup was unable to come through in the bottom of the eighth or bottom of the ninth, and UNLV eked out the win.
Smith discussed the poor performance of his pitching staff.
“We were not sharp,” Smith stated. “That’s going to happen sometimes. … And so we just got to regroup, put that behind us and get ready for this weekend.”
After the game, Smith made another alarming announcement. He said starting pitcher Erik Tolman would need Tommy John surgery. The news comes less than two weeks after Smith announced that ASU’s No. 1 starter Cooper Benson and No. 2 starter Boyd Vander Kooi were also in need of Tommy John surgery.
Swift spoke following the game on losing his teammate for the season and the mentality the team will have to have.
“It’s a shame to have all three of those guys do down but honestly, if we were going to go down in any spot, I would say pitching would be our best spot since we got so much depth,” Swift said. “It’s been so good to see those young guys already come up and perform in big situations, and it’s just next man up mentality.”
ASU hits the road for the first time this weekend for a three-game series with the Oregon Ducks. Friday’s game starts at 4 p.m. Arizona time and will be ASU’s first game this season that counts toward its Pac-12 record.
