ASU Baseball: Devils Take Series from Washington State

The Arizona State baseball team will be headed to the postseason for the 14th time in the last 15 seasons following their eighth Pac-12 series win of the year at Washington State Sunday.

The Devils took two of three from the Cougars in Pullman, with a combined 25 runs on the weekend. They won Friday’s and Sunday’s matches 12-8 and 6-3, respectively, but couldn’t rally late in Saturday’s game to lose 10-7.

Saturday’s loss featured an epic collapse for ASU in the fourth inning.  Washington State scored all ten of their runs in that inning.  The Cougars first got to starting ASU pitcher Ryan Kellogg.  The bullpen didn’t fare much better as they could not put out the fire.  Even though the Sun Devils rallied and scored seven unanswered runs after that brutal inning, they couldn’t get over the hump.

The Sun Devils clinched third place in the Pac-12 with a 19-11 conference record, one spot higher than they were expected to finish in the preseason coaches’ poll.

Sunday marked the end of their regular season, finishing 33-22, the 52nd consecutive year in which the program has won 30 games.

Head coach Tim Esmay notched his 33rd conference series win in his five years at ASU, more than Jim Brock and Pat Murphy in each of their first five seasons. He also collected his 90th conference win and his 201st win at ASU, becoming the second-fastest coach in school history to reach 200 wins.

The Devils postseason fate will be determined in the NCAA Baseball Division I Baseball Championship Selection Show on Monday, May 26, at 9 a.m. PT on ESPNU, where they will learn their regional opponent and location.