ASU baseball ran into all sorts of trouble against the Cowboys. Nine pitchers combined to give up 22 hits in an ugly 18-4 loss at home.
“Nobody was going out there on the mound and pitching with any type of a purpose,” said disappointed ASU baseball head coach Tracy Smith after the blowout loss to Oklahoma State, “You don’t pitch to the score, you pitch to go out and compete.”
The bats may have been a bit sleepy for the Cowboys in the opening weekend, but today they were wide awake. The offense exploded for 18 runs on 22 hits, their most hits in a game under head coach Josh Holliday. The guys at the plate didn’t try to overpower the ball, they just kept putting the ball in play. Twenty of Oklahoma State’s 22 hits were singles. Nobody for the Sun Devil pitching staff had an answer to the hot bats.
As the game went on it got rougher and rougher for ASU, as the Cowboys scored at least two runs in each of the last four innings. Starting pitcher Zach Dixon picked up his first loss of the season, despite only surrendering one earned run which came in the third and final inning of his performance.
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Three of Oklahoma State’s first four runs were unearned. Two of which came as result of errors by sophomore Jeremy McCuin at shortstop. Smith cited this as well as the seven walks surrendered by the pitching staff in saying a lot of the runs today came, “As a result of our miscues.” Smith went on to say, “We’ve walked more guys now than we did in three weeks of inner squad (scrimmaging).”
As if things couldn’t have gotten any worse today for the Sun Devils defensively, Smith informed the media that Zane Strand, a freshman pitcher whom exited the game early against Northwestern Sunday due discomfort in his arm, has been lost for the remainder of the season.
Offensively, it took seven innings for ASU to make a mark on the scoreboard. The Sun Devils were held in check by a freshman making his first career start, Johnathan Heasley. Heasley pitched five stellar innings of shutout baseball, giving up only two hits and walking just one batter.
Tyler Williams got a pinch hit home run, and Carter Alderte also knocked one out of the park in the late going to show some life offensively for the Sun Devils. Tracy Smith in the midst of managing the late game blowout, used four pinch hitters.
Next: Devils in Detail Live: Episode 4
The road does not get any easier for the Sun Devils, now 3-1, as they will travel to face No. 1 ranked TCU in a three game series this weekend. If the blowout loss today wasn’t enough motivation heading into the next series, then the fact that the Horned Frogs eliminated the Sun Devils from the NCAA Tournament last season should be.