Bullpen falters late as Sun Devils lose to Bearcats 11-7

This one looked like a sure win for the Sun Devils. And then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone.

Arizona State had their first of a four game road trip through the midwest on Friday with a series opener against the surging Bearcats. With Ben Jacobs on the mound, they were the favorites to start things off, but not by an overwhelming margin.

Things started off really well for them, too. After their first two batters got out quickly, the Sun Devils caught fire. Brandon Compton, Matt King, Isaiah Jackson, and Kien Vu hit four consecutive RBI singles to put Arizona State up 4-0 after one.

Cincinnati responded with two runs in the bottom of the first, but Jacobs shut things down after that. That kicked off four straight shutout innings from the ace, highlighted by some uncharacteristic pitching. Jacobs has traditionally been a strikeout king, but he threw just three K's in five innings pitched.

Instead, Jacobs forced batter after batter into poor contact off the bat. Over his five innings, Jacobs stranded seven on base, letting guys get on base but never giving up runs (after the first inning).

The Sun Devil bats added some extra padding to their lead during that stretch. In the fourth, Vu scored on a ground out from Landon Hairston; in the sixth, Vu scored again thanks to a Kyle Walker single. That made it a 6-2 lead, at which point Jacobs was pulled for Josh Butler.

That's when things took a turn.

Butler walked the first two batters, and two consecutive ground outs helped bring a run in. Butler got out of the sixth without any more damage, but he got rocked in the seventh. A single advanced to second after a wild pitch, and another walk saw Butler pulled for Jonah Giblin.

The change didn't help, though. Giblin started things off with a wild pitch, putting runners in each corner. Both would plate just a few pitches later thanks to a double, cutting the Sun Devil lead to one run.

But Cincinnati wasn't done. A two-out single brought the tying run home, and then Giblin collapsed. He hit the next batter, then threw a wild pitch that advanced him to second, and then intentionally walked the batter, loading the bases. At that point, Giblin hit the next batter, driving in the go-ahead run. The next batter flew out to center field, ending the inning, but Arizona State had quickly turned a 6-2 lead into a 7-6 deficit.

The slide continued in the eighth. Giblin gave up a triple right out of the gate, and was quickly replaced by Sean Fitzpatrick. He was pulled after one at-bat, though, as it was an RBI single. In came Wyatt Halvorson, who gave up three more runs before finishing the frame. But Cincinnati upped their lead to 11-6 with just one inning to go.

Arizona State did make a bit of a rally effort in the ninth. Walker and Hairston both got on base, and Jacob Tobias drove in an unearned run by way of a ground-rule double. However, that was followed up by a strikeout from Compton and a ground out from King, ending the game.

This game has to leave a sour taste in the Sun Devils' mouths, as their pitching staff surrendered double digit runs in their second straight game. It was also an immediate warning of how dangerous this Bearcats squad is, and they'll need to be on their game tomorrow in order to even the series.