A disastrous top of the seventh inning from the Arizona State defense led to the Sun Devils (15-6, 4-3 Pac-12) falling to Arizona (17-7, 4-3 Pac-12) 10-5 on Thursday at Phoenix Municipal Stadium in the first Territorial Cup baseball matchup since May 7, 2019.
For a short period of time, the game appeared as though it would be an exciting comeback victory for the Sun Devils. After Arizona scored two runs on a double in the first inning by Branden Boissiere and another run on a sacrifice bunt by Nik McCluaghry in the second inning, the Sun Devils came alive in the bottom of the fourth.
ASU had its fans roaring louder than they have all season in the fourth inning when the Sun Devils used small ball to score five runs in the frame and take a 5-3 lead on their rival heading to the top of the fifth.
However, the tide turned quickly. Arizona added a run in the top of the fifth inning on a Ryan Holgate RBI-single to narrow the Sun Devils’ lead to just one.
After neither team mustered up any runs in the sixth inning, ASU collapsed in the seventh.
As ASU head coach Tracy Smith put it, “we made errors.”
The seventh inning started with Arizona’s Jacob Berry reaching first base on a throwing error by ASU shortstop Drew Smith. After Boissiere singled to move Berry to third, ASU made a pitching change.
ASU relief pitcher Brady Corrigan was pulled from the game in favor of Cam Dennie. Dennie immediately threw a wild pitch to the first batter he faced, allowing Berry to score and Arizona to tie the game. Wildcats’ catcher Daniel Susac then reached on ASU first baseman Ethan Long’s error, moving Broissiere to third. After Dennie was able to strikeout Arizona right fielder Ryan Holgate, Jacob Blas singled home Broissiere to give Arizona the 6-5 lead. He also moved Susac to second in the process. After a Kobe Kato single to load the bases, Wildcats’ left fielder Tanner O’Tremba tripled past diving ASU centerfielder Joe Lampe, clearing the bases and giving Arizona the 9-5 lead.
The seventh would get even worse for the Sun Devils. After allowing another base runner on a bunt single by McCluaghry, ASU replaced Dennie with Graham Osman. The first batter Osman faced, Donta Williams, hit a ball right back to Osman and he casually threw it right past Long. O’Tremba scored, completing Arizona’s six-run seventh inning.
With ASU failing to get a hit in the final five innings on Thursday, the seventh inning proved to be the dagger.
“We can analyze this and cut it up any way we want but the bottom line is, we didn’t take care of the baseball tonight and it cost us the baseball game, plain and simple,” Smith stated. “And that’s where it starts and that’s where it ends. At least in my mind.”
Swift said the game was an anomaly defensively and he expects the Sun Devils to be ready to play when they face Arizona Friday at 6 p.m. Arizona time.
“Errors happen,” Swift remarked. “That’s a part of the game. I don’t think there was anything that caused it. I think that we just got to get ready for the next one and not make too big of a deal about it because we’re a really good defensive team.”
As for the offensive struggles late in games, Smith said his team’s inexperience offensively was to blame.
“That’s a little bit of our immaturity offensively,” Smith explained. “ … We’ve got to do a better job of sticking together consistent (at-bats) and be a threat every inning. And you’re not going to score every inning. You want to make sure you’re piling and stacking up good at-bats. I think we gave a few of those away tonight. We just got to do a better job at being competitive all 27 outs regardless of the score.”
