ASU Baseball: Sun Devils drop midweek contest to New Mexico State

ASU baseball‘s season long problems were on full display Wednesday night, as poor pitching and defense led to an 8-7 defeat at the hands of New Mexico State.

Spencer Van Scoyoc was given the start for just the third time this season, and looked impressive out of the gates.

The sophomore made it through the first two innings relatively quickly, striking out three while only giving up one walk.

Things went south in the third inning, however, as Van Scoyoc’s infamous command issues reared their ugly head.

He led off the third by giving up three hits in four at-bats, including two doubles.

After this, Van Scoyoc hit two and walked one, including a four pitch walk to No. 7 hitter Marcus Still with the bases loaded.

Van Scoyoc had given up four runs on four hits by the time the third inning ended, completely erasing the early lead that the Sun Devils had gained courtesy of an RBI double by Alika Williams the inning prior.

“They stuck a couple hits in there,” head coach Tracy Smith said about Van Scoyoc’s outing. “I thought he was around the zone. Probably the only disappointing AB was the four-pitch walk with the bases loaded.”

Smith expressed disappointment in Van Scoyoc’s inconsistent outing, but still sees the potential for him to succeed in the future.

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“Yes, I wish he would’ve gone five or six innings. It didn’t happen tonight, but we’re not gonna give up on him,” Smith said. “We’re going to continue to work with him because he’s shown progress.”

Despite the early deficit, ASU fought back valiantly.

After the Sun Devils loaded the bases with one out against Aggies starter Justin Dehn, Taylor Lane drew a walk after a great at-bat, which brought home a run to made the score 4-2.

Hunter Jump followed this with a bloop single into right center field to drive in the second run of the inning. Gage Workman was hit on the very next pitch, bringing in yet another run to tie the score at four apiece.

New Mexico State regained their lead in the top of the fourth, however, with the help of a couple of defensive miscues by first basemen Spencer Torkelson.

After Aggies shortstop Joey Ortiz led off the inning with a base hit, leadoff hitter Logan Bottrell looked to sacrifice bunt him over to second.

Torkelson fielded the bunt cleanly but lost the ball while trying to tag Bottrell, which caused both runners to be safe.

Two batters later, new pitcher Brady Corrigan got Caleb Henderson to fly out to right field. Ortiz tried to tag up, but was caught in between third and home after a good throw by right fielder Carter Aldrete. Torkelson cut the ball off but made a poor throw to Workman at third, allowing Ortiz to score the go ahead run.

Smith was not happy with his team’s continued defensive struggles.

“That’s been a little bit of a nemesis, just playing catch” Smith said. “Slow the game down and play catch, and you take some of the freebies off the board. We’ve been giving our fair share of freebies.”

The Aggies would go on to extend their lead in the top of the fifth by jumping on the ASU relief corps.

NMSU quickly loaded the bases with one out against Corrigan, and an RBI single by Ortiz was enough to chase him from the ballgame. Jake Godfrey came on in relief of Corrigan, but gave up a sacrifice fly to Bottrell and an RBI single to Trey Stine, which made the score 8-4 in favor of the Aggies.

The Sun Devils fell down once again, but were able to claw their way back into the game once again as well.

In the bottom of the 7th, the Devils blitzed new reliever Chance Hroch.

With no outs in the inning, Lyle Lin hit a long double to left, Lane singled up the middle to drive home Lin, and Jump tripled to deep right center to bring Lane across. The score was suddenly 8-6, and Hroch was lifted in favor of Matthew Perea.

The ASU bats did not slow down however, as Workman walked and Williams brought in Jump with a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to just one. Perea came up clutch after this though, as he got Hunter Bishop to strike out and Torkelson to ground out to end the scoring threat.

“I thought we kept battling at the plate,” Smith said on his team’s resiliency after falling behind multiple times. “I have no qualms with that.”

ASU had an opportunity to win the game in the ninth inning. A single by Jump and a walk by Williams put the tying and winning runs on base, but Bishop struck out looking on a 3-2 count to end the game.

“We can’t keep relying on our offense to bail us out. That’s not how you win games,” Smith said. “You win games with your pitching and your defense, so those things need to get better and be more consistent.”

The Sun Devils’ three-game win streak was snapped as a result of the loss, and their record fell to 17-23.

Next: ASU Baseball: Offense has been far from the problem

ASU will now travel to Corvallis, Oregon for a tough three game series against the fifth-ranked Oregon State Beavers. This series runs from Friday to Sunday, with the opener beginning at 5:35 p.m. PST on Friday.

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

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