ASU Baseball: Devils Exit Tournament

Today, the ASU baseball team lost their elimination game to Sacramento State by a score of 5-4.

This loss ends the 2014 season for the Sun Devils.  To say that their performance in this Regional was a disappointment is an understatement.  Devils in Detail, along with most fans and followers, believed that ASU was the most all-around talented team in the group of four teams in San Luis Obispo.  Yet, they are the first team eliminated.

ASU’s primary shortcoming for this regional was their offense.  The pitching and defense were solid for the most part.  But the bats were cold for the Sun Devils.  In both losses, Sun Devil hitters were plagued with bad “at bats”.  Furthermore, they couldn’t get the timely hitting that they have been used to in the month of May.  Today’s game, it seemed that every inning, they had runners on, but couldn’t capitalize.  They would get the hit they needed when there was nobody on with two outs.

Sacramento State committed four errors in the game, yet still led the entire game.  It appeared the floodgates opened in the bottom of the 8th inning when the Hornets scored three runs to make the score 5-2.  That scoring spree was allowed by a booted double play ball by Tucker Esmay.

But ASU answered back in the top of the ninth by scoring two runs.  Those came by way of RJ Ybarra‘s two run homerun.  Ybarra came into the game as a pinch-hitter after being yanked from the starting lineup because of his recent slump.  The Devils continued to threaten in the inning with runners on first and third with one out.  But Stankiewicz got caught in a run down between third base and home.  But with runners on second and third, Trever Allen struck out looking to end the game.

So that wraps up the 2014 season for this Sun Devil team.  Almost every team finishes their season on a bad note.  That’s the nature of the beast.  ASU made it to the playoffs.  That’s a successful season.  Their appearance did not go as expected, but that’s baseball.  Just ask Florida State.  The Seminoles were the 7th ranked team in the nation and got bounced out of their own regional in two games as well.  But for die-hard ASU baseball fans, the standards are set pretty high.  Getting ousted immediately is not good enough for the Sun Devils.  So this early exit will be a sour taste in the mouth for everybody in the program.  Hopefully, it will fuel the off-season hunger in preparation for next year.