There is no delicate way to put this, so I will just rip the Band-Aid right off.
At this time last week, the Devils were considered a lock for the NCAA tournament, sitting on the 2/3 seed line. After an embarrassing four game losing streak, capped off by today’s 2-0 loss to last-seeded BYU, the Devils hopes of a postseason berth now hang in the balance.
Ben Jacobs took to the mound, shaky as of late but needing a lock-in performance to get himself and the team back on track. Trouble started early as he walked two Cougars but got a big inning strikeout to keep them off the scoreboard.
The Cougars would scratch a run across in the top half of the 2nd after a hit batter and a balk put Keoni Painter at second base with one out, where he would be driven in by a Crew McChesney double, giving BYU the early 1-0 lead. Jacobs buckled down and got a strikeout and a groundout to limit the damage to just the one run.
On the BYU side of the ball, Justis Reiner got the ball for the start, and delivered a lights out performance. Over 4 innings, he scattered 3 hits, struck out 1 and walked none, providing further frustration for a Sun Devil offense that rattled off a 10-run inning just last week against GCU. More on the Devils offensive woes to come.
Jacobs’ third inning of work saw a one out triple but no further damage as he induced a pop-out and strikeout to keep the score 1-0. He would ultimately strike out four consecutive Cougars as he struck out the side in order in the 4th inning.
Then in the 5th, the control issues started. A hit batsman, a single, and two walks forced in the Cougars second run of the game. Cole Carlon was brought on in relief after 4.1 innings from Jacobs with two runners left on base, one of those inherited runners scoring on Carlon’s second walk of the inning. An inning ending strikeout of Keoni Painter kept the inning from getting fully out of hand, but needing the offense to wake up and get the Devils back in the game.
Carlon would pitch 1.2 innings of scoreless ball, not allowing a hit but walking 5 while striking out 4, keeping traffic on the base paths but finding ways to escape unscathed. Sean Fitzpatrick opened the 7th inning by striking out the only batter he faced after a HBP review showed that Cooper Vest offered at the 2-1 pitch, keeping him at the plate.
Jonah Giblin came on and kept the Cougars offense at bay. Over the final 2.2 innings he gave up just 2 hits, walking 1 and striking out 7 with a hit batsman, but more importantly kept BYU from adding more runs to the scoreboard.
Ashton Johnson opened the 5th inning in relief for the Cougars and continued business as usual to this point in the game, setting the Devils down in order for the second time in the game. Johnson was equally as dominant on the mound as Reiner was, limiting the Devils to 3 hits while striking out 1 and hitting 1 over the final 5 frames.
The Devils offense could find no answer to Cougars pitching. The entire lineup was far too aggressive all game long, rarely working deep counts and only forcing the two pitchers to throw a combined 113 pitches in 9 innings. By comparison, Ben Jacobs tossed 96 pitches by himself in 4.1 innings, part of a combined 200 pitches thrown between the four Sun Devils pitchers.
The hitting performance, if it can be called that, was flat out embarrassing. The Devils were retired in order three times in the game, recorded no extra base hits, and took until the 8th inning before a runner reached scoring position thanks to back-to-back 2-out singles by Jax Ryan and Kyle Walker.
Matt King led the way by reaching base three times with two singles and a HBP, while Walker joined him as the only Devils to record multiple hits. The only other Devils to reach base were Jax Ryan and Brandon Compton. After scoring at least two runs in every game this season, the Devils didn’t even make it out of the starting gate as they were shut out for the first time in a very make-or-break game.
Despite the loss, Devils pitching performed admirably. The pitching staff set a Big 12 tournament record by striking out 18 Cougars while scattering only 5 hits but walking 8, allowing the Cougars to extend innings to scratch their runs across.
What’s next?
For now, the Devils will have to wait and see if the selection committee looks favorably on their regular season performance, or allows recency bias to keep them out of the field of 64.
Sliding to 48 in the RPI puts the Devils firmly on the bubble, and they will have to wait and hope that teams immediately around them don’t make a deep run in their respective tournaments, while also hoping for an assist in the RPI from TCU and Kansas, teams that Arizona State won their series against in the regular season.