ASU Baseball: Sun Devils Stumble Down Stretch; Drop Game One of UCLA Series

Bruins explode for five runs in the ninth; hand ASU baseball sixth conference loss in seven games to start Pac-12 play.

ASU baseball’s squad struggled to break through and have a big inning. Runners got on base, but no one came through with a game breaking hit. A late offensive surge by UCLA in the ninth inning made it a 9-3 loss for the Sun Devils.

ASU (11-13, 1-6) continues to slide down the Pac-12 leader board. Coach Smith pointed to the defense as being a big reason for the woes saying, “Our issue right now is finding a combination of guys that can field a baseball and make a play.”

Two crucial errors, one by shortstop Carter Aldrete and the other by left fielder Hunter Bishop, resulted in big innings for the Bruins’ offense.

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Location was a problem for Eli Lingos, ASU’s starting pitcher, tonight. The junior walked five batters and hit a man after walking just eight batters over his first six appearances of the season. Lingos battled for 5.2 innings, surrounding five hits and punching out four.

Chris Isbell struggled in replacing Lingos in the late innings. The sophomore pitcher gave up five back-breaking earned runs in the top half of the ninth. This allowed for the 4-3 UCLA lead to swell to 9-3 heading in to the home half of the ninth.

Though guys were able to get on base for ASU, Griffin Canning of UCLA did a good job at limiting the damage by leaving seven Sun Devils stranded. Canning came into tonight with 49 strikeouts this season, good enough for 23rd in the nation. He built upon that impressive total, striking out nine ASU batters and surrendering three earned runs over 7.1 innings of solid work.

Smith said the struggle for ASU offensively tonight came as a result of, “A combination of (Canning) being who he is, which is one the best pitchers in our league, and our inability to lock it in and be a little bit more competitive when it mattered most.”

Five of the seven hits tonight for ASU came from the bottom of the lineup. Gage Canning hitting seventh, and Taylor Lane batting eighth were both able to capture multi-hit games. Canning was also navigated around the bases to score two of the team’s three runs. The top half of the lineup will need to follow suit in order to keep up with UCLA moving forward.

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UCLA (12-11, 5-2) extended their winning streak to six games, and the Sun Devils continued their slump, losing six of their first seven conference games. Smith’s team will get a chance to bounce back Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. MST in game two of the weekend series. The game can be seen on the ASU Live Stream.

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