ASU baseball attempted to complete their first sweep of the season, but fell short to Oklahoma State 3-2 in extra innings.
As all the momentum appeared to be heading the Sun Devils’s way after two dominating wins ASU couldn’t get the key hit on Sunday as the Oklahoma State Cowboys defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils 3-2 in 10 innings.
Arizona State finished 1-for-17 with runners on base and 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Both teams had many opportunities to break the game open and were tied in the 10th, until Ryan Cash delivered a slow-rolling single into right field scoring Cody Milligan. Oklahoma State left 10 on base, and the Sun Devils left nine.
Cowboys’ starter C.J. Varela couldn’t make it out of the third, but Oklahoma State received exceptional relief from junior Cameron Teel.
Teel saved the Cowboys bullpen that was both overworked and dominated by the ASU bats working 7 1/3 strong innings and only allowed one run picking up the victory.
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ASU couldn’t find any success as the lefty did a very effective job of changing speeds and keeping ASU off-balance.
Teel threw 105 pitches for OSU. In an era when pitch counts are a hot topic seeing Teel throw that many pitches out of the bullpen was astonishing.
“He (Teel) had a little bit of movement on his fastball, it was going into lefties and away from righties. Kinda just scooted up on the dish a little bit and took that movement away from him,” said Spencer Torkelson who homered off of Teel to knot the game at two in the seventh.
Alec Marsh started on the hill for ASU in a last-second decision due to Boyd Vander Kooi being scratched. Marsh threw three shutout innings and was held to a tight pitch count.
“He’s (Marsh) been consistent, aggressive in the strike zone and thrown multiple pitches over (for strikes). If you can do that you’ll have a lot of success,” said ASU head coach Tracy Smith.
Marsh was more critical of his performance today.
“Honestly I didn’t think I had much working today. I didn’t think I did my job for my team, as a starter you’re supposed to go five or more. I used with what I had today, everything wasn’t feeling great today,” said Marsh.
Chaz Montoya provided great relief work for ASU, but after getting two quick outs in the 10th he walked Milligan and gave up a single to Joe Littell before Cash’s game-winning hit. Montoya worked 3 2/3 innings and just fell victim to bad luck in picking up the loss.
“I thought he threw well, outside of the one walk I thought he did a good job. He competed out there in a crucial situation and that’s what you want out of your guy at the backend,” Smith said. “Our plan all along was to get it to the sixth or seventh and turn it over to him.”
Next: ASU Baseball: Lingos dominates Cowboys in Sun Devil win
The Sun Devils will now travel to Malibu, California for a Tuesday matchup against Pepperdine. Vander Kooi will be on the hill for ASU after being scratched today with arm soreness as a precaution. First pitch will be at 3 p.m. MT.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.