SCOTTSDALE - The Devils entered the Pac-12 tournament the hottest they have been all season long. Their first opponent of the week was Stanford, who they swept just two weeks ago. For Stanford, the team entered the weekend on a 10-game losing streak.
The tables turned drastically as an eight-run inning from the eighth-seeded Cardinal (21-32, 11-19 Pac-12) propelled them to an upset win over the fifth-seeded Devils (32-25, 17-13 Pac-12) 8-7. The Devils had a bit of a comeback, scoring three runs in the ninth inning, but fell just short.
“Extremely proud of the guys' willingness to fight all the way to the end,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “But at this point, we gotta control what we can control and come out on Thursday and beat Oregon State.”
The game started off very slow, with both teams going scoreless in the first three innings. ASU was held hitless through the first three, and Stanford only mustered up three hits of its own in that time period.
The scoreless tie was crushed in the fourth inning by the Cardinal. It started with a leadoff homer from sophomore catcher Malcolm Moore, who had two home runs in the fourth inning alone. The bases were then loaded with just one out when a ground ball was lightly hit to third.
Senior third baseman Kevin Karstetter fielded the ball cleanly but botched the throw to home as it sailed past Campos to the backstop to score a run with only one out in the inning. Senior lefty Connor Markl started the game for ASU and struggled with his pitching location throughout the game. Once a third run scored off a wild pitch and Markl walked his third batter, he was pulled for junior lefty Jonah Giblin.
“Markl threw the ball fine after his last outing was just a bullpen day,” Bloomquist said. “We just didn’t give him that much of an opportunity behind him, and we made a couple of costly defensive miscues.”
Giblin came into a difficult situation with the bases loaded and gave up a bases-clearing double to make it a 6-0 game. Moore hit his second homer of the inning to give Stanford an 8-0 lead, and the Devils were suddenly in deep trouble.
“We had a chance to get out of the inning there with minimal damage and just didn’t make the plays to do so,” Bloomquist said.
They started chipping away at the lead little by little with runs in the fourth and fifth inning to cut the lead to six, but still had a lot of work to do. Bloomquist made an uncharacteristic substitution in the fifth inning and called for a pinch hitter. Senior Eamonn Lance came in for Karstetter and drew a walk in the fourth he would later score on.
Lance walked up to the plate in the sixth with a runner on first and changed the momentum with a two-run homer, and the Devils were right back in the game.
“I was ready for a heater, and now that I’ve gotten out there a few more times now it’s gotten easier going out there,” Lance said. “I pride myself in being a good teammate. I think the guys recognize that so when I’m called upon, those guys got my back and were really happy for me. If I can be that spark that gets us going I’m happy to do it.”
Neither team scored in the seventh nor the eighth, and Arizona State was down to their last three outs.
The inning started with three straight walks before senior left fielder Harris Williams fouled out to left field, but all the base runners failed to tag up so no one scored. Lance walked to bring home a run and senior shortstop Steven Ondina scored a run with a sac fly.
Junior catcher Ryan Campos singled to center, and it was suddenly 8-7. Sophomore center fielder Kien Vu stepped up to the plate with the tying run just 90 feet away at third base. Vu hit two homers in their last game against UNLV and helped ignite that comeback.
He swung on the first pitch he saw and lifted it into left field, but the left fielder made the catch in time, and the Devils fell short of the comeback.
“We opened the door for Stanford, and they took advantage,” Bloomquist said. “This doesn’t diminish anything we’ve accomplished in the last month and a half. We’re a very capable team, and you never know what’s gonna happen. All we can do is control going out and playing well on Thursday.”
The Devils had their opportunities all game long. They stranded 13 runners on base and loaded the bases in three different innings. They went 2-10 with runners in scoring position and 4-18 in total with runners on base.
“We had seven runs and a lot of baserunners, but the only thing is we didn’t come up with the big hit,” Bloomquist said. “We had multiple opportunities to bring in runs, but we couldn’t. We still had seven runs, not as many hits as we’ve been getting, but at the end of the day, in this conference, anybody can beat anybody.”
ASU's NCAA tournament bid to the postseason will have to include a win on Thursday against No. 6 ranked Oregon State, a team that swept the Sun Devils during the regular season. Yet, Arizona State now has to also hope that No. 3 Oregon or No. 4 USC go 0-2 in pool play, with the other winning their pool, as well as No. 1 Arizona winning its pool.
