Sam Ferri had the best game of his collegiate career so far, launching his first collegiate home run to walk off the Washington State Cougars and help ASU baseball improve to 18-0.
During one of the wildest ninth innings in Sun Devil history, Sam Ferri connected to hit a walk off home run to beat Washington State 8-7.
The junior catcher had himself a game to remember, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and throwing out a baserunner in the seventh to help ASU stay undefeated.
Ferri got himself into a 2-1 count to lead off the bottom of ninth before sending one deep into the night sky for the first home run of his collegiate career.
“The last I hit, I think I was like 12. That was probably my last home run too,” Ferri said. “I thought I did pretty well. I just tried to take every pitch by pitch and do the best I can every pitch.”
“ makes a difference in how we play… That’s a pretty tough thing to do to sit out for two years, but what’s cool is he’s come back in stride and taken ownership of our team, taken ownership of our pitching staff,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “That’s what you want out of a starting catcher.”
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Prior to Ferri’s walk off home run in the bottom half of the ninth, a very peculiar play happened to shift the momentum in the top half.
After WSU’s Dillon Plew doubled off the wall in left, Kodie Kolden tried to score to tie the game at seven but collided with the home plate umpire Randy Sutton about a quarter of the way to the plate.
The play prevented the run from scoring and although the run ended up scoring later on, it prevented Plew from advancing an extra base and scoring the eighth run later in the inning.
“I didn’t even know what happened,” Carter Aldrete said. “The relay got thrown into the infield and I went after it. I was like ‘I hope this guy doesn’t go to third.’ And then I just see the guy with his helmet off stumbling back to the bag. Then I saw their coach all up in the umpire’s face.”
Boyd Vander Kooi shoved for 6.1 innings, allowing four runs, all earned, striking out four and walking two.
Overall, the pitching staff clawed for nine innings, allowing six earned runs, but the offense picked them up with seven RBIs and three home runs off the bats of Spencer Torkelson, Gage Workman and Ferri.
Hunter Bishop continued his hot streak, adding another two RBIs, a hit and a walk to his season totals.
The Sun Devils are now 2-0 in Pac-12 play going into Sunday. Being only one of two undefeated teams in the nation, ASU has to prove themselves in one of the premier conferences in all of college baseball.
“We’re going to find a way and we’re going to go down swinging. I can guarantee that,” Smith said. “When you look back at the end of the season, all the games are important… We’ve done nothing yet.”
ASU will look for their fourth consecutive sweep and 19th consecutive victory Sunday, as RJ Dabovich will get the ball to face Hayden Rosenkratz and the Cougars in a matinee game at noon PT in Phoenix.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.