Arizona State gives up the long ball, leading to series-opening loss

(Photo via Sam Polgreen/WCSN)

TEMPE – Coming off the heels of the first complete game of her Sun Devil career, senior right-hander Deborah Jones started strong against Oregon State. As the game progressed, however, the long ball would bite Jones and the Arizona State pitching staff.

Arizona State (16-10, 1-3 Pac-12 Conference) hosted Oregon State (13-14, 2-2 Pac-12) at Farrington Stadium for the first home conference game of 2024 for the Sun Devils. ASU had momentum coming into the Friday night matchup, having beaten crosstown rival Grand Canyon 8-2 on Tuesday.

Jones was the star of that game, pitching all seven innings, with the only damage coming from a sacrifice fly in the fifth and a home run in the fourth. Friday, Jones, once again, pitched an overall nice game but still gave up a home run, this time with bigger consequences.

“All we can ask (Jones) to do is just keep us in the ballgame and she did that,” Assistant Coach Jimmy Kolaitis said. “She made a couple of mistakes late, but she kept us in the ballgame. She gave us a chance to win, and offensively we’ve got to help her out a little bit more.”

The sixth inning is when Jones ran into trouble. A leadoff single was smoked off the bat of junior first baseman Lici Campbell to start the inning, bringing up junior right fielder Eliana Gottlieb with a runner on. Gottlieb got into a favorable 2-1 count before getting a pitch she liked and drove it on a line over the wall in right-center field. The two-run shot tied the game up at three runs apiece.

Prior to the sixth inning, Jones was dealing. She had given up only four hits and a walk while striking out four. Her only run given up to that point was scored when sophomore left fielder Yannixa Acuña couldn’t get a challenge throw off to home on what ended up being an RBI single with a runner scoring from second due to Acuña getting injured on the play. With one swing of the bat though, her start completely changed.

After the home run, ASU brought in right-handed graduate student Marissa Schuld was brought into the game. Schuld got three outs without any more runs coming across to score.

An inning later, in the top of the seventh, Schuld went back out to the circle to continue her work. Her inning started off strong, getting back-to-back outs before walking freshman left fielder Paige Doerr. This brought Campbell up to bat for the second inning in a row.

It seemed like Schuld was able to brush off the walk, getting Campbell in an 0-2 count that favored the pitcher. Campbell didn’t seem to care about the odds, driving the next pitch out over the left field wall with authority to break the 3-3 tie and give the Beavers a 5-3 lead.

“Just got to make better quality pitches in those situations,” Kolaitis said. “We gave up another 0-2 home run tonight. We just got to keep hammering on that. We’re up in the count. We’ve made some really good pitches. We’ve got to be a little bit more consistent.”

It was a slower day for the Arizona State offense and if the game-tying home run didn’t shift momentum towards Oregon State, the tie-breaking home run certainly did. The Sun Devils couldn’t answer back in the bottom half of the seventh, and they fell 5-3, the game getting completely changed on just two swings.

“Some days you’re the bug. Some days you’re the windshield,” Kolaitis said. “Just be the windshield more than the bug.”