Before Saturday, Justin Fall had never worked longer than six and two-thirds innings of work in a Sun Devil uniform. The 6-foot-6 Sun Devil left-hander helped Arizona State pick up a win over Washington State on March 28, the night of his previous career long appearance in maroon and gold.
Nothing as of late from Fall would’ve pointed anyone in the direction of believing that a complete-game, 133 pitch performance would be on the table in his next appearance. The previous three appearances from Fall saw the Toms River, N.J., native give Tracy Smith’s squad a total of 10 innings, pitched, with Fall allowing five, four, and three earned runs without ever completing four innings in any of those starts.
In the third inning of Arizona State’s 6-3 win over California Saturday, Fall took a line drive off the leg, fielded it, and tossed underhanded to first baseman Jack Moss for the out. After walking around the infield grass gingerly – and receiving attention from the ASU coaching staff – the lanky left-hander stayed in the game. Two batters later, a bouncing ball to first base was fielded by Moss. With Fall scrambling to the base to cover the play, the left-hander slipped on the top of the base and came up favoring his right leg. Once again, Fall was visited by the ASU coaching staff.
Following a few warm-up pitches, he would remain in the game once again. The Sun Devils escaped the inning after redshirt senior Sam Ferri threw out a base runner at third on an attempted double steal. Through three innings in Berkeley, another short Fall start appeared to be on the horizon.
From there, Fall labored through his start, stranding base runners in each of the first five innings. Fall’s first clean inning of work came in the bottom of the sixth inning. In unison, the Arizona State bats awoke in the seventh.
With the Sun Devils trailing 3-1, redshirt junior Hunter Jump opened the ASU half of the seventh inning by drawing a five-pitch walk. Jump became just the second ASU base runner of the game – with redshirt freshman Sean McClain’s fourth inning home run being the only previous Sun Devil to reach base. Following Sean Sullivan’s strikeout of McClain, freshman Ethan Long strode to the plate, hitless to that point in the series.
Long’s quiet Friday night – the Mountain Pointe High School product went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts – was quickly erased with one swing of the bat. On a 1-1 pitch Long laced a line drive over the left field fence for his 11th home run of the season. The swing erased the 3-1 Sun Devil deficit with one swing – and pulled him into a tie with Barry Bonds for second place in home runs as a freshman in Arizona State history.
As if to signal the arrival of the Sun Devils back into the game, Fall snagged a line drive up the middle by California second baseman Darren Baker to end the seventh inning. Departing from the mound, Fall spiked the third out ball onto the turf at Evans Diamond.
Tied at 3-3, the Sun Devils were able to get the leadoff man on in the eighth inning as Kai Murphy singled to center field. A failed sacrifice bunt and failed attempt to steal second base from Nate Baez set up a two-out, no-on situation for the Sun Devil offense. After redshirt freshman Joe Lampe worked a walk, Drew Swift lined a double to the left center field gap with Lampe running on the pitch. The speedy Lampe was able to score easily, giving Arizona State its first lead of the series and Swift his 27th RBI of the season. The insurance runs would continue in the top of the ninth inning for the Sun Devils.
There was no waiting around for the ASU bats in the final frame, as McClain lined a first-pitch single to right field. On the next pitch, Long launched his second two-run home run of the day, a no-doubter which gave Fall a comfortable lead and himself sole possession of second place in the ASU freshman home run history book, surpassing Bonds.
From there, Fall worked another clean inning, wrapping up his first complete game at the Division 1 level with a swinging strikeout of Cole Elvis. The last 13 Golden Bear batters went down in order, as Fall appeared to get stronger and more confident as the game progressed.
ASU’s win over California helped head coach Tracy Smith’s team re-claim sole possession of sixth place in the Pac-12 standings. On Sunday, they’ll play the rubber match at 1:05 p.m. with a well-rested Sun Devil bullpen available and providing Smith with options against the Golden Bears in the series finale.
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Numbers to know
Ethan Long’s second home run of the night gave him his third game this season with multiple home runs. All three of those instances have come since April 24.
Arizona State’s win improved them to 26-15 and 11-9 in Pac-12 play.
