Arizona State Rides Explosive Fourth Inning to Emphatic Win Over Arizona

(Photo: Connor Gleason/WCSN)

PHOENIX – Arizona State sophomore left fielder Landon Hairston got all of it. He knew it, and so did everyone else inside Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

First came the sound of a changeup that was hung over the heart of the plate, destroyed by the metal weapon Hairston held in his hands. Then came the visual of the ball flying through the night sky, toward the Whiteman Family Performance Center building beyond the stadium’s right field wall, only being stopped by the structure itself.

On the mound, Arizona senior right-handed pitcher Matthew Martinez could just watch, his right fielder, freshman Caleb Danzeisen, could only give a courtesy trot and Hairston could do whatever he wanted, choosing to flip his bat in the air and emphatically yell toward his dugout before rounding the bases.

“My eyes kind of lit up,” Hairston said. “Didn’t miss it.”

The fourth-generation ballplayer’s blast was the exclamation point on Arizona State’s (12-4) five-run fourth inning that put them ahead of its archrival from down south, Arizona (6-10), and allowed the Sun Devils to control Tuesday’s matchup all the way to a 10-4 victory in the two teams’ first of five meetings this season.

“It’s more than just a win,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Even though it counts as just one in the win column, it’s nice to jump out and get the first one against those guys. They’re a solid team, and for us to come away with the win, obviously, we played pretty well on most facets of the game tonight.”

Hairston’s home run was part of a dynamic fourth inning set up by redshirt sophomore third baseman Austen Roellig, who singled into center field off of the Wildcats starter, junior RHP Collin McKinney.

McKinney entered the evening with a 7.27 ERA in 8.2 innings pitched across three games, but was cruising after he settled in following a Roellig sacrifice fly in the first that scored Hairston, who led off the frame by getting hit by a pitch.

That state of comfort didn’t last much longer.

With Roellig on first, McKinney hung a 1-2 breaking ball to fifth-year right fielder Dean Toigo, and the reigning Mountain West Co-Player of the Year didn’t miss it, driving it over the wall in right-center field, breaking the game’s 1-1 tie.

It was Toigo’s sixth home run of the year – tying him for the team lead with junior center fielder Dominic Longo and Hairston – but also his third in his last three games, after an eight-game stretch of not leaving the yard.

“There’s a couple little minor mechanical things that we adjusted with him,” Bloomquist said. “He has felt much better the past week or so. Hopefully that continues. Obviously, you’re always needing to sharpen the blade and fine-tune things all the time.”

Toigo’s shot got things going for the Sun Devils, with a double from junior first baseman Dominic Smaldino driving McKinney out of the game, and a double from sophomore second baseman Beckett Zavorek bringing him home before Hairston’s rocket home run.

At the time of the offensive outburst, sophomore right-handed pitcher Taylor Penn was on the mound, meaning he inherited the win. The Western Kentucky transfer was lights out, entering the game in the third and giving three strong innings of one-hit baseball out of the bullpen.

While his head coach treated Tuesday’s affair as more meaningful than an average game, the key to Penn’s success was to do the opposite.

“Just went out there confident, (I) knew my guys had my back,” Penn said. “Just competing, just like it’s another game. Can’t make it too big.”

Penn piggybacked off redshirt junior right-handed starter Colin Linder, who started the season as the Saturday starter before being relegated from the role. In two innings of work Tuesday, he allowed three hits, two walks and an earned run, while striking out three.

It was two singles through the right side of the infield that did the damage in the second, advancing Wildcats catcher Roman Meyers, who reached on a walk, to third and then home.

Bloomquist’s decision not to send Linder out for a third inning of work wasn’t due to the bumpy second; it was just part of the game plan.

“The anticipation was for Linder to go two to three,” Bloomquist said. “Taylor Penn to go two to three and hopefully get us past the fifth, maybe to the sixth. Have (Junior RHP) Jaden (Alba) maybe get us the seventh.”

The last part didn’t work out for the Sun Devils. Alba entered the game in the sixth and proceeded to give up a walk, a single and a mammoth home run to Meyers, getting pulled before recording a single out.

Senior southpaw Sean Fitzpatrick got ASU out of the inning without any more damage being done, but with the lead down to two runs, the offense had to provide insurance.

Over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, the Sun Devils scored four runs, with Roellig capping off the scoring with a sharp single up the middle, bringing home junior shortstop PJ Moutzouridis and pinch runner Ky McGary.

“It’s a lot different going to that ninth inning up six than up just a grand slam,” Bloomquist said. “For him to come up there in that big situation, it was big for him and big for us.”

After ASU’s 29-4 win over Loyola Marymount on Sunday, Bloomquist expressed that the team was going to need more production from Roellig and Zavorek. They provided that against the Wildcats, each recording two hits and at least one RBI, helping an offense that saw eight of its nine starters reach base and score double-digit runs.

“I don’t think there’s any weakness in this lineup,” Hairston said. “Even if guys are struggling, we got guys that pick each other up. That’s the makeup of this group. We got guys that are close-knit, we’d die for each other, really.”

With insurance runs piling up as the later stages of the game played out, Fitzpatrick was able to offer three innings of work, striking out four and only giving up one hit in his first outing longer than 1.1 innings pitched this season.

And with a six-run lead, all junior RHP Derek Shaefer had to do was slam the door in the ninth.

With the win, the Sun Devils momentarily hold Territorial Cup bragging rights on the diamond, but don’t move to 1-0 in Big 12 Conference play, as that doesn’t officially start until Friday, when Texas Christian arrives in Tempe.

ASU will get four more chances to prove itself as the superior team in the state, with only three counting toward the team’s conference record. If Tuesday’s matchup is anything to go by, both squads have hard-fought affairs in their future.

“They’re going to be tough moving forward,” Bloomquist said. “Nice to get that first one against them, and we know that we’re going to be into a dogfight every time we play against them.”