(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
While Arizona State won just one opening contest in Pac-12 play during 2017, they doubled this season’s total in the 5-1 defeat over the Trojans Friday night.
The Sun Devils looked to build on that Saturday night in hopes of winning their second conference series of the year and third overall series of 2018. But when an opposing pitcher pieces together the type of outing that USC right-hander Solomon Bates spun, it makes life difficult on an offense.
Bates had everything working through the entirety of his start. He struck out nine Devils, overpowering the offense on the bump en route to a 10-1 win in favor of the Trojans.
“That kid was on,” ASU head coach Tracy Smith said. “He was really good tonight.”
While the nine strikeouts jump off the page, Bates has more to his arsenal than just the ability to put a K in the scorebook. He induced a healthy dose of soft contact, totaling nine fly-ball outs and four groundouts.
“It was funny because he was beating us with one pitch beating some pretty good hitters with that one pitch,” Smith said. “So he was doing something special.”
Bates retired 13 of 14 hitters from the third inning to the seventh, ended by an Alika Williams double to left. His final line was closed after 7.2 innings, surrendering three hits and an earned run that was plated after he was removed from the game.
Through six innings, the Sun Devils had just two hits to their name. USC, on the other hand, was on a surge at the plate. They pushed across three runs in the second inning, three in the fourth, and three in the fifth.
This leads to the other piece of the puzzle that was not put together by the Maroon and Gold: crisp defense. For the second time in a week, errors and defensive mishaps handcuffed the Devils and led to a plethora of Trojan runs.
“That consistency will not come until we do a better job of catching and throwing the baseball,” Smith said.
The team had three Saturday, although it felt as if that number was light.
Spencer Torkelson did not look as sharp as he did in the early going at first base. He was subject of a tipped ball off his glove going to his left, later followed by a one-hop from drew Swift that he could not corral, putting Jamal O’Quinn on at first, who scored on the next at-bat.
Gage Workman misplayed what looked to be a routine foul ball from Ben Ramirez that was not scored an error in the fifth and two pitches later, Ramirez sent a fastball into the night in right field for a three-run bomb.
Hunter Bishop had trouble with two fly balls of his own, losing one in the lights in the third, then he overran a tailing shot down the right field line in the seventh.
“It’s a concentration thing,” Smith said of the errors. “We’ve got to understand how important those little things are.”
The one bright spot of the night for Smith’s club was the relief outing of Spencer Van Scoyoc. The lefty threw three shutout innings after coming in as part of a bullpen job following the rocky outing of Eli Lingos (4.1 IP, 9 H, 3 ER). It was the first time in 2018 Van Scoyoc had an appearance with no walks and no runs allowed.
“We’ve kind of done a reboot with him,” said Smith. “That game was kind of over early and he didn’t pitch like it. In my mind he looked as focused as a guy in the seventh game of the World Series.”
It was Van Scoyoc’s first time seeing game action since March 17 against Oregon.
ASU will turn around Sunday afternoon for the rubber match looking to win its second Pac-12 series of the season and third overall series victory. First pitch is slated for 12:30 p.m.
