After losing two out of three to a talented UCLA team, ASU baseball was unable to win a thriller on the road against a struggling Washington State team
A walk off home run for Washington State’s Justin Harrer in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Cougars the 8-7 win over the Sun Devils in game one of a three-game series between ASU and Washington State from Pullman.
After freshman Dellan Raish threw four innings of scoreless relief, the lefty was relieved of his duties for another lefty in sophomore Chaz Montoya.
Montoya proceeded to get ahead in the count 0-2 to Harrer before allowing a a lead-off solo shot that ended the Sun Devils hopes of an extra inning victory.
ASU starting pitcher Sam Romero could only go 1.1 innings as the lefty allowed six runs, all of them earned, against a Cougars team that stands at only 6-14 after Thursday’s victory.
After a scoreless bottom of the first inning for Romero, the junior allowed a three-run home run to Collin Montez and an RBI double to Andres Alvarez before getting lifted for Fitz Stadler.
Stadler did not fare much better for the Sun Devils as the big righty surrendered another two runs to score on a single from Dillon Plew.
By the end of the second inning, the Cougars had scored six runs on seven hits off of ASU pitching.
Even with their pitching in a slump, ASU’s bats kept the Sun Devils into the game thanks to multi-hit performances from Gage Canning, Lyle Lin, Alika Williams, Taylor Lane and Hunter Bishop.
Gage Canning continued his first half dominance at the plate with two hits including a double as the junior is still hitting over .460 on the season.
A surprising big-time performer on the night for ASU was Taylor Lane who had his best game of the season with three hits including two doubles on the night.
A member of the hitting barrage for ASU was Spencer Torkelson who smashed his 12th home run of the season to give ASU the 7-6 lead in the sixth inning.
Torkelson’s two-run blast set the all-time freshman record for home runs in a season surpassing Barry Bonds’ record of 11 freshman home runs only 25 games into the season.
After taking the lead in the top of the sixth, ASU was unable to hold onto the advantage as Fitz Stadler’s throwing error to first base on a bunt from Cal Waterman allowed a run to score to tie the game at seven.
The Cougars amassed a total of 10 hits on the night, but only two players were able to produce multi hit efforts in Danny Sinatro and Blake Clanton who both had two hits apiece.
Washington State capitalized on their opportunities as the Cougars went 4-9 on the night with runners in scoring position.
Next: ASU Baseball: Devils look to take advantage of struggling Washington State
ASU looks to even up the series against the Cougars at one apiece on Saturday evening at Washington State.