ASU Baseball: Pitching falters as Sun Devils fall 16-4

A 10-run fifth inning was the ultimate cause of a mid-week split for ASU baseball as they lost to the Long Beach State Dirtbags 16-4 on Wednesday.

The game started off well as starter Fitz Stadler continued the great pitching in the state of California with four innings of two-hit baseball.

The Devils were able to jump out to an early lead after Hunter Jump grounded into a double play but scored Alika Williams to give ASU the 1-0 lead.

The Dirtbags evened the game up in the fourth inning but Spencer Torkelson hit a two-run home run in the top half of the fifth to regain the lead for the Sun Devils.

But that was where the wheels fell off for ASU.

After a leadoff walk to start the bottom half of the fifth from Stadler, Brady Corrigan came in for relief and was only able to get one out before loading the bases full of Dirtbags.

The regular Friday night starter, Spencer Van Scoyoc then entered the game to try and get out of the bases loaded jam but walked in a run with the bases loaded in four pitches. Van Scoyoc just faced the one batter before Grant Schneider came in and gave up four hits, including a bases clearing triple.

Ryan Hingst then came in after Schneider and was ultimately able to get ASU out of the inning but not before allowing 10-runs and being down 11-3 heading to the latter part of the game.

The Sun Devils offense struggled again as eight of the teams eleven hits came from the big three of Gage Canning, who went 3-5, Lyle Lin who went 2-3, and the freshman power hitter Spencer Torkelson who went 3-4 with two home runs. Torkelson brought in three of the teams four runs.

Next: ASU Baseball: Sun Devils travel to play LBSU

Corrigan took the loss as the Sun Devils fell to 4-5 on the season with a big non-conference series coming up this weekend against Big 12 opponent Oklahoma State who is 5-2 in the early part of this season.