There are those who would wish that baseball season never ended, but Tuesday night marked the end of the line for the regular season at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
The Sun Devils made the most of the night, riding a 10 run bottom of the 7th inning en route to a 17-7 mercy rule win, the 4th such win for the Devils in the last three weeks.
Freshman Max Arlich took to the mound in the home finale, making his 9th appearance of the season following an inning of relief in Saturday's win against Houston. After allowing a leadoff walk, he proceeded to retire the side in order in the 1st, countered by a scoreless bottom half of the inning thrown by Chance Key, the starter for the Antelopes.
Arlich would go three innings in his start, with the only other blemish on his line being a 2nd inning home run by Billy Scaldeferri that gave the Lopes the early lead.
The Devils produced traffic in both the first and second innings, putting runners on the corners with one out in the 2nd, but double plays in both innings ended any hope of scoring. Arizona State would finally break through in the 3rd when Matt King drove a deep fly ball to center that got caught in the wind and landed just out of reach for his 7th home run of the season. Back to back doubles from Jacob Tobias and Kien Vu put the Devils ahead before Josiah Cromwick grounded out to end the 3rd.
A leadoff walk in the 4th would end the night for Arlich, with Willie Bloomquist summoning Josh Butler from the bullpen. The Lopes would get runners on the corners with one out, but a caught stealing and strikeout kept the score at 2-1. The bottom of the 4th saw the offense continue firing as Brandon Compton led off the inning with his 9th home run of the season, a no-doubter off the batters eye in center.
The scoring didn't stop there as Jax Ryan reached on a bunt single and advanced to second on a throwing error, later advancing to third on a wild pitch on a walk to Kyle Walker. Landon Hairston then hit a fly ball to LF that the wind caught a hold of, dropping to the turf and bringing Ryan home with the 4th run of the game. Walker and Hairston stole third and second respectively, and a ground out by Matt King brought Walker in to make it 5-1 at the end of the 4th.
The error bug bit the Devils in the top of the 5th when the Lopes clawed back with two runs. Troy Sanders started the inning with a leadoff single, advancing to third on an error by the normally sure-handed Matt King, giving the Lopes runners at the corners with nobody out.
Josh Wakefield singled and was thrown out trying to stretch to a double, and Emilio Barreras grounded out to bring in Brody Sexton, making the score 5-3 at the 5th inning break. The Devils went down in order in the bottom half of the 5th, and Lucas Kelly retired the Lopes in the same fashion in the top of the 6th inning.
Who else but Isaiah Jackson? Isaiah welcomed new pitcher Billy Gregory to the 6th inning with his 14th home run of the season, and 8th in his last 10 games to make it 6-3. A double and a stolen base by Walker led to a sacrifice fly by Hairston, stretching the lead back to 4 runs at 7-3.
The Devils threatened for more in the inning, as a double by Matt King followed by a walk to Jacob Tobias and HPB to Kien Vu loaded the bases with two out, but Josiah Cromwick flied out to left to end the inning.
Kelly came back out for the top of the 7th, and here's where the bullpen PTSD starts to set in. After striking out Carson Ohland, two doubles with a walk sandwiched between them cut the lead to 7-5.
Bloomquist went to the bullpen and called upon Cole Carlon, but the Lopes kept rolling. Barreras singled to make it 7-6, and Eddy Pelc tripled him in to tie the game. Carlon buckled down and struck out Scaldeferri to send te Muni Faithful to Stretch time.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the dugout to hear whatever Bloomquist had to say during the break, because you had to see the bottom of the 7th to believe what happened. Compton started the inning with a fly out to left, but a four pitch walk to Isaiah Jackson and a double by Jax Ryan put the Devils back on top 8-7. Ryan advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on the same play thanks to a wild throw down from the Lopes catcher, and brought with him the 9-7 lead.
Kyle Walker and Landon Hairston jumped in on the action with back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches, quickly getting the lead back to four runs at 11-7, but the scoring was far from over.
Matt King grounded out for the second out, but not another out would be recorded for the rest of the night. Barrett Skaugrud would come on in relief of Gregory after a walk to Jacob Tobias, and gave up a single to Vu that sent Tobias to 3rd on the play. A walk to Cromwick loaded the bases, and another walk to Compton forced in the 12th run of the game. Then, that man Isaiah Jackson struck again in a grand way.
Jackson's second home run of the game, 9th in 10 games, and 15th of the season broke the game wide open and put the mercy rule within reach at 16-7. Jax Ryan got hit by the first pitch he saw, and on a 1-1 count Kyle Walker ripped a double to left-center field that scored Ryan all the way from 1st, and sent the Devils home early with a 17-7 mercy rule win.
Tonight's offensive explosion saw 8 of the 9 Devils in the lineup record a hit (Cromwick the lone hitless batter), and saw 4 Devils with multiple RBI's led by Jackson's 5 RBI night. The announced attendance of 3,351 fans saw a memorable finish to the final home game of the season, as the Devils reached the 35 win plateau for the first time since 2019.
Tomorrow will be a travel day as the Devils hit the road for Stillwater for the final series of the regular season against Oklahoma State. With the regular season title still attainable, sweeping is on the collective mind of the team in the push for the postseason.