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ASU Baseball: Sun Devils suffer second straight loss to Cal State Fullerton

By Cole Bailey

OMAHA, NE - JUNE 23: Members of the Arizona State Sun Devils wait on the mound for their manager to arrive during Game 13 of the 59th College World Series against the Florida Gators at Rosenblatt Stadium on June 23, 2005 in Omaha, Nebraska. The Gators defeated the Sun Devils 6-3. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
OMAHA, NE - JUNE 23: Members of the Arizona State Sun Devils wait on the mound for their manager to arrive during Game 13 of the 59th College World Series against the Florida Gators at Rosenblatt Stadium on June 23, 2005 in Omaha, Nebraska. The Gators defeated the Sun Devils 6-3. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images) /
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ASU baseball came up on the losing end of a pitchers’ duel Wednesday night as they dropped the second game of their two-game series against Cal State Fullerton by a score of 2-1.

Brady Corrigan took the mound for the Sun Devils Wednesday night and gave what was arguably the best outing of his young career.

Corrigan pitched six innings, allowing only two hits and a single unearned run while striking out four and walking just two.

The lone run the freshman gave up was in the second inning when Fullerton’s Nick Ciandro drove in Jacob Pavletich after Pavletich reached base on a throwing error by third basemen Gage Workman.

Corrigan was especially good after this, allowing only one baserunner over his last four innings.  He also had a stretch where he retired nine hitters in a row, a true testament to the adjustments he made mid-game.

Head coach Tracy Smith was very pleased with Corrigan’s outing, and cited the freshman’s aggressiveness as a key to his great performance during the game’s middle innings.

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“I thought really looked solid after [the second inning],” Smith said. “The guy in the third through the sixth, that’s what you’re looking for in the Pac-12.”

Corrigan pitched great, but his performance was matched by the Titans’ entire pitching staff.

Timothy Josten was the starting pitcher for Fullerton and was solid in his four innings of work, limiting the Sun Devils to four hits and one run, which came via Gage Canning’s third home run of the season, a solo shot to right center that evened things at one apiece.

After Josten was lifted, the Fullerton bullpen shut down the Sun Devil offense. Relievers Blake Workman, Dillon Brown and Brett Conine combined to throw five shutout innings, with Workman allowing the only two hits the group gave up between them.

This was the textbook definition of a pitchers’ duel, with the score locked at 1-1 for the majority of the game.  This would change in the top of the eighth however, as the Titans managed to break through against ASU’s relief corps.

Chaz Montoya began the eighth and got the first batter of the inning to ground out, but allowed a runner to reach second after a base hit by leadoff hitter Hank LoForte and a sacrifice bunt by Mitchell Berryhill.

Montoya intentionally walked Ruben Cardenas, and was then pulled in favor of Connor Higgins.  Higgins walked his first batter to load the bases, but appeared to get out of the jam one batter latter.

He got Sahid Valenzuela to hit a swinging bunt down the third base line, but catcher Lyle Lin slipped and fell while setting his feet to make the throw to first base. This allowed every runner to advance safely and gave Fullerton the 2-1 lead, where it would remain for the rest of the game.

“It was kind of a freak play on the swinging bunt with Lyle losing his feet,” Smith said. “I thought he made a good play, but the grass was wet and he fell down.”

Smith was disappointed with his team’s offensive effort, but recognized the fact that Fullerton played good, fundamental baseball that helped them take home the victory.

“We didn’t do enough offensively, clearly, but credit them,” Smith said. “They didn’t walk anybody and they played good defense behind their guys. It was a good baseball game tonight, but we just came out on the wrong end of it.”

ASU fell to 13-16 with the loss while Cal State Fullerton improved their record to 12-15 on the season.

Next: ASU Baseball: Devils blow late lead to add to growing list of heartbreaking losses

The Sun Devils will stay in Phoenix for their next series when they host USC for three games this upcoming weekend.  The first game of this series is on Friday and will begin at 6:30 p.m. PST.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.

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