In baseball, it’s not easy to take three games straight away from an opponent, let alone to take six straight victories over the span of two series. Entering the bottom of the ninth on Sunday afternoon thought, Arizona State (22-13, 10-8 Pac-12) looked poised to accomplish that rare feat.

However, the Utah Utes (10-23, 5-13 Pac-12) had other ideas, scoring three runs in the final frame to take the last game of the series against the Sun Devils by a score of 7-6.

From the jump, the Utes looked determined to avoid two straight sweeps from the Sun Devils this season, as they dropped all three of their matchups in Tempe in the first week of March. The second batter for Utah, redshirt sophomore catcher Jayden Kiernan slotted an RBI single to right center field to score leadoff man Jaylon McLaughlin almost immediately.

ASU redshirt freshman righty Christian Bodlovich got his first, start of 2021, and aside from the early attack from the Utes, he managed to control himself on the mound, only allowing three hits and the lone earned run in the first. He was pulled in the fourth in favor of freshman righty Brock Peery.

The Utes tacked on the pressure again in the fifth, racking up three singles and a triple in succession to take a three-run lead. Kiernan logged another RBI single during the flurry of scoring on a 2-1 pitch from Peery.

For the Sun Devils in the batter’s box, offense was quite difficult to come by. Utah redshirt sophomore righty David Watson, who made a short appearance against ASU on March 6, threw an extremely strong six and two-third innings, striking out six, walking two, and allowing two runs, both earned. Through the first four innings, Watson and the Utes defense sat down the first 12 hitters for ASU in rapid succession. Watson didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning and induced two double plays.

The Sun Devil bats finally got to Watson in the top of the sixth as redshirt junior outfielder Hunter Jump hit a two-out single to score Nick Cheema from second, who reached via hit-by-pitch. Jump was caught advancing to second to end the frame.

Arizona State continued to see Watson’s pitches increasingly well in the seventh as freshman first baseman Jack Moss laced a double to left. Freshman third baseman and team-leader in RBI, Hunter Haas, logged another RBI on a single to left, scoring Moss to cut the lead to one run. The single extended Haas’s hitting streak to the mark of 15 games.

However, the Utes had something to say to ASU’s effort, as they stacked up runners against redshirt freshman reliever Graham Osman before scoring a run on a wild pitch from another reliever, redshirt freshman righty Cam Dennie.

Dennie issued a walk following the wild pitch and was quickly pulled in favor of redshirt junior Brady Corrigan, who entered in a sticky one-out bases loaded jam. Corrigan managed to finagle his way out of the situation with a fielder’s choice play at home and an emphatic strikeout to end the frame.

Down two, the Sun Devils entered the top of the ninth inning with their backs against the wall, looking to make diamonds out of the tough situation. Redshirt freshman Sean McLain got the ball rolling with a single to right, his 47th hit of the year. Freshman designated hitter Ethan Long continued his hot streak from Friday and Saturday into the final game of the series, hitting another single directly behind McLain. Moss, with a double already under his belt on the day, hit the third straight single of the frame, scoring McLain to make it a one-run game yet again.

Haas stepped into the batter’s box in yet another massive situation with runners on first and second. The freshman roped a double to right field, allowing the pair of runs to score for ASU’s first lead of the contest.

Redshirt freshman Kai Murphy would score Haas on a peculiar single that bounced off of the first base bag, giving the Sun Devils a hard-fought and a well-deserved two-run lead.

For the third time in three games, redshirt sophomore Will Levine took the mound for ASU, this time defending a two-run lead ASU hoped to hold onto to claim two straight series sweeps of Utah this season.

The air at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City tightened when Levine gave up a leadoff single to Utah freshman Kai Roberts and became increasingly tense as redshirt junior Christopher Rowan Jr. launched a rocket off of the batter’s eye in center to square the game away at six apiece.

Levine went on to give up another single before allowing the runner to reach second on a wild pitch. On a 2-2 pitch, Utah’s RBI leader Shea Kramer, who was 3-for-3 on Saturday night, singled to center field, scoring the walk-off run before being mobbed on the basepaths by his teammates. The walk-off was his only hit of the day.

The Sun Devils will stay on the road in the state of Utah to face the Cougars of Brigham Young University on Monday in Provo, before darting back to the Valley of the Sun for another date with the Cougars. First pitch for Monday’s game is at 10 AM MST.