ASU Baseball: Torkelson walks it off in the 11th, Devils improve to 10-0

After going back and forth with Michigan State, Spencer Torkelson came to the rescue for ASU baseball in the 11th with a walk-off three-run home run.

Two outs, 0-2 count.

It seemed as if Sam Ferri would become Mitchell Tyranski’s latest victim in the 11th inning. The Michigan State lefty had thrown 4.1 innings of scoreless baseball against the Sun Devils vaunted offense by zipping fastball after curveball after fastball past ASU’s talented lineup.

But Ferri kept the inning alive.

The Sun Devils starting catcher shot a 0-2 curveball into left field for ASU’s first hit off Tyranski.

“When you just drop your concentration, your focus, for one second, and it can be something as small as that, in my mind that was the critical piece of the game,” head coach Tracy Smith said following the dramatic victory.

The next hitter up, Hauver, then reached on an infield single. And all of a sudden, the Sun Devils had two on and two out for Preseason All American first baseman Spencer Torkelson.

“There’s nobody on the planet that I would rather have at the plate in that moment than (Torkelson) right there,” Smith said.

Five pitches later, Torkelson deposits the ball over the left field wall for the walk-off victory. In a sequence of events that happened in a blink of an eye, the Sun Devils improved to 10-0 on the season defeating the Spartans in a back and forth 8-5 victory from Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

With ASU’s bats struggling for a majority of the game against the likes of Tyranski and starting pitcher Mike Mokma, it was the Sun Devils bullpen and defense that carried the team, especially in the later innings.

Freshmen relievers Blake Burzell and Erik Tolman combined to throw five of the Sun Devils six innings from the bullpen.

And the young duo shined, allowing just one hit, walking one and surrendering no runs.

But Tolman still found himself in trouble with the bases loaded and one out in the 10th inning.

With Marty Bechina up to the plate, who had homered way back in the first inning, a Michigan State go-ahead run almost felt inevitable.

But Bechina flew out to Myles Denson in right field, and although center fielder Danny Gleaves got a good jump off third base in his attempt to tag up and score, Denson gunned him down at the plate. A perfect throw and catch that sent a thunderous roar throughout the crowd.

Inning over. And then one inning later, game over.

ASU has won again. Now at 10-0 on the season, the Sun Devils are more than just hot, they are scorching.

The final game of ASU’s three game series against Michigan State concludes on Sunday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. MT from Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

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