The largest crowd ever in Phoenix Municipal history, 7,084, ASU baseball returning to the top 25 for the first time since 2023, and a matchup against their fierce in-state rivals, the Arizona Wildcats. There are not many bigger stakes to be had at a Friday night showdown.

The stars lined up nicely for this matchup. Prior to Monday, Arizona was ranked in the top 25, and ASU was just looking in. That changed on Monday when the two teams traded spots. ASU was listed as the nation's No. 24 team, while Arizona had dropped out.

There's no better way for ASU to prove its worth than to face its equally powerful rivals, both of whom had their aces on the mound.

This one stood up to the hype, with a back-and-forth contest until the very end. Ben Jacobs, a junior left-handed pitcher, had only allowed four hits, one earned run, and ten strikeouts through four and two-thirds innings until allowing six consecutive base runners to reach, tying the game. The Wildcats (21-8, 7-3 Big 12) would harness that momentum to seize the lead later on and not relinquish it, as ASU (20-10, 7-3 Big 12) went scoreless in the next four innings to lose to Arizona, 8-5.

After Jacobs's three-strikeout inning in the fourth to get out of another jam, it appeared that this could be a standout start in his ASU career. A gem against ASU's bitter rivals, with both teams among the best in the country vying for the Big 12 crown, instead ends up being a squandered chance at a game one victory for Jacobs and the entire team.

“The disappointing part of it is that this one came with two outs,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “He seemed to be cruising along there through the fifth… I felt really, really confident if we got through the fifth with Jacobs with the lead that we had a pretty good shot at that one.”

When Jacobs concluded his night, the game was tied, but the momentum had swung significantly after a very depressing inning, which gave Arizona the confidence boost they needed, which would carry into the seventh.

In the seventh inning, Bloomquist called sophomore Wyatt Halvorson back out for another clean bullpen inning, but Halvorson, who has been outstanding for the Sun Devils this season, was unable to keep the game tied. With four hits in a five-batter stretch—a single, a double, a triple, and a two-run go-ahead homer—Arizona quickly established a three-run lead.

“They gave up a couple of home runs, left a couple of pitches up, and really that was the story,” Bloomquist said. “Especially with Wyatt, he’s been throwing the ball pretty well. He just left a breaking ball up, and Maddox hit the snot out of it.”

If you had to summarize this game in two words, missed opportunities would be the ones you would use again and again. Arizona hit 7-14 (.500) with two outs and 5-12 (.417) with runners in scoring position, but senior first baseman Jacob Tobias felt the Wildcats "found some holes, and we just couldn't find those same holes." It was one of those nights for ASU.

Everything appeared to be going well for the Sun Devil offense after junior right-handed pitcher Collin McKinney had his worst start of the season, surrendering four runs, three of which were earned, but the Arizona bullpen was shut down after that.

In contrast to those successful early-inning tallies, ASU went entirely silent in the latter four innings of this contest. They stranded runners in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings, a runner was stranded in the eighth, and in the ninth, when Arizona third baseman Mathis Meurant dropped a sophomore catcher Broddy Briggs popup in foul territory to give the backstop another chance, Briggs went down, along with every other bat in that inning.

“Obviously, we didn’t come up with the big, big hit,” Bloomquist said. “...There were some situations where we had a chance to drive in runs with two outs and just didn’t, but the effort level was there; we did put a lot of good at-bats together; it’s just we have to hope to cash in with runners in scoring position a little more.”

The Arizona bullpen allowed only four hits and one earned run in 5 ⅔ innings of relief, striking out seven ASU batters. Junior right-handed pitcher Casey Hintz, who pitched 3 ⅔ IP out of relief, had ASU utterly out of sync all night. Hintz's sidearm motion was effective in inducing ground balls and weak contact just when the Wildcats needed them.

Seven of the nine ASU starters tonight recorded a hit, three with several, but it felt as if those hits were never strung together in one inning but rather spread out throughout the game, not amounting to much.

Although the offense wasn’t exactly a highlight, freshman outfielder Landon Hairston had another strong performance, reaching base three times and scoring an RBI single. Junior Nu'u Contrades had two doubles in the loss, but his ground ball into a double play in the seventh thwarted what would be ASU's last chance with runners in scoring position.

Two innings, a four-run fifth inning, and a three-run seventh inning proved to be the difference in this game. Arizona recorded five RBIs with two outs, while ASU only gathered one, and the Arizona Wildcats, who have been very adept at finding ways to win this season, found another way to win.

This was a disappointing result for everyone involved, given the magnitude of tonight's game, the crowd, and the expectations. Everything about the game, from the early advantage to Jacobs's early dominance, left a terrible taste in the mouths of everyone involved. However, ASU can only focus on a short memory for the time being. ASU is now 0-2 versus the Wildcats this season, but they have a chance to level the score if they can turn their luck over the weekend.

“We didn’t play poorly tonight,” Bloomquist said. “ We left a couple of pitches over the plate that they didn’t miss. The really only glaring thing is the two-out focus there in the fifth… It was just one of those nights where they scored more runs than we did, and unfortunately against them, if you don’t like to hear that, and I certainly don’t like to hear that and swallow it, but it is what it is; we have to turn the page and come back ready to play tomorrow.”

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