Sun Devils come up short in comeback bid, fall 5-3 to No. 20 Tennessee

The Sun Devils' first game in the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series didn't go quite according to plan. A rubber match against No. 4 Mississippi State quickly got out of hand for Arizona State's arms, and they fell 8-4.

Saturday's matchup brought another tough opponent in No. 20 Tennessee. Colin Linder, who's had two solid starts so far this year, took the mound again.

Unfortunately, the Volunteers got to Linder early in this one. The second inning started with a lead-off single, which was followed up by a double. The third batter drilled it to left center, driving in both base runners. Linder walked the next batter before a sacrifice bunt earned the first out of the inning, though it moved a Volunteer into scoring position.

Another walk from Linder preceded consecutive RBI singles, cranking the tally up to four runs for Tennessee. Linder wrapped up the inning in quick succession after that, but the damage had been done.

Linder would stick around for two more innings, giving up just one hit outside of his disastrous second inning. All in all, he finished the day with two strikeouts and a 4.43 ERA in short order. Alex Overbay took over from there and stranded two Volunteers over three shutout innings.

In fact, Tennessee would be held scoreless for the next six consecutive innings after that explosive second frame. It was a generally strong performance for the Sun Devil pitching staff, actually. The problem was their offense couldn't help them out much.

Arizona State finally got on the board in the fourth inning, thanks to a double from Dean Toigo; he would score later in that inning on an RBI single from Austen Roellig, but that was it for the inning.

Later in the seventh, PJ Moutzouridis launched a deep sacrifice fly that brought Landon Hairston home, cutting the deficit to just one, but Arizona State was unable to add any more runs from there.

A sacrifice fly from Tennessee tacked one more run on in the top of the ninth, giving the Volunteers a little padding and making it very difficult for the Sun Devils to mount a last-ditch comeback. Tennessee didn't give much room for it, either, striking out the lead-off batter and then forcing two fly out's to end the game.

In the end, this one came down to that second inning. Tennessee did virtually all of their damage in that inning, but Arizona State looked to be the better team for the other eight. That won't make much of a difference to Willie Bloomquist, as his club has now dropped three straight after starting out 8-0.

Still, it bodes well for Arizona State's overall outlook that they've gone toe-to-toe with multiple ranked opponents this week. A strong showing tomorrow against No. 23 Texas A&M would make for a satisfying ending to the weekend.