Another late collapse buried ASU baseball as the Sun Devils lost their fifth straight game on Saturday at No. 2 Stanford.
Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Devils were rolling.
They had the No. 2 team in the country down 4-2 with starter Sam Romero having given up just two runs in seven innings of work. Stanford had just three hits in the ballgame at that point.
Romero walked the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the eighth and then forced a fly out. He was at 93 pitches so head coach Tracy Smith elected to use his bullpen.
Smith brought in Chaz Montoya, who was seemingly unhittable early in the season. He gave up just one earned run over his first 13 innings. Over his last six innings though, Montoya gave up 13 earned runs.
A hit and a walk later, Montoya was taken out for Jake Godfrey, still with one out in the inning.
An error and a walk after that, the score was tied at four, and first baseman Andrew Daschbach was at the plate with the bases loaded. Daschbach was 0-for-3 at that point with two strikeouts, but he came through with the go ahead grand slam to give Stanford their first lead of the game 8-4.
The Cardinal brought home three more runs extending their lead to 11-4. ASU scored two in the ninth off of a Gage Workman two-run home run, but the game ended with a final score of 11-6.
Inconsistency in all aspects has brought the Devils down all season.
Over the last six games prior to Saturday, the Sun Devils averaged three runs per-game, almost two whole runs lower than their average before that stretch. On Saturday, they scored six runs on 11 hits, the most hits they’ve earned since March 31.
Spencer Torkelson added two home runs to his historic freshman season. He now has 18, which leads the nation in division one. No freshman has ever led the country in home runs for a season.
However, ASU’s pitching gave up 10 or more runs for the third time in five games. They have given up 10 or more runs only four times in 30 games before this stretch.
This was ASU’s fifth straight loss and twelfth loss in 15 games. They have fallen to 14-21, two games worse than they were at this point in 2017.
Next: ASU Baseball: Sun Devils’ losing streak falls to four after tough loss to #2 Stanford
They will look to avoid a sweep on Sunday at Stanford before heading home to face the 9-22 Utah Utes in a three-game series.