ASU Baseball: Devils Throttle the Wildcats
By Mike Slifer
Last night, the ASU baseball team handed the UofA Wildcats a 14-6 loss. With the win, ASU’s record sits at 14-10, while Arizona drops to 11-16.
In what ASU coach Tim Esmay called a “tale of two games”, the Sundevils were able to rally in the sixth inning, mostly due to poor pitching and miscues by Arizona.
Leading 6-4 in the sixth inning, the Arizona pitching staff walked the bases loaded, had two wild pitches and a hit batsman. The Wildcats also committed a costly error. To ASU’s credit, they also had 5 hits in the inning that saw 16 batters come to the plate.
The mistake-riddled inning allowed ASU to score ten runs in the inning. No on scored in the remaining two and a half innings.
This has to be frustrating for Arizona, as they are struggling to get back to .500 this season. UofA is undoubtedly a talented team. They just keep shooting themselves in the foot at the worst possible time.
ASU will gladly take the victory. The Sun Devils also played some sloppy baseball to start the game, allowing Arizona to take a 6-1 lead early. ASU battled back in the fifth, scoring 3 runs to close the gap to 6-4.
ASU junior catcher Nate Causey (from Gilbert) went 4-5 on the evening. The Sun Devils used a staff-by-committee in their pitching effort to nail down the victory.
ASU now heads to Los Angeles for a three game set against the defending National Champions, UCLA. The Bruins are 15-8 and on a three game winning streak. It should be a tough test for ASU and a key series for PAC-12 conference standings and positioning for post season play.