ASU Baseball: Benson’s stellar start not enough as Sun Devils fall in the ninth 4-2

(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)

Arizona State had everything going its way in the season opener against the Sacramento State Hornets. Until they didn’t.

After dominating the first eight innings, the Sun Devils saw their 2-0 lead blow up in their faces when Hornets catcher Dawsen Bacho hammered a grand slam off of redshirt freshman right-hander Cam Dennie to give Sacramento State the 4-2 win.

“Outside of the ninth inning, I was very pleased with how we performed on the mound,” Smith said. “If we can continue to do that, we’re gonna win a lot of baseball games.”

One of the lone bright spots for the Sun Devils was redshirt freshman Cooper Benson. After being announced as the new Friday night starter for the Sun Devils, Benson seemed poised to pick up right where he left off in 2020.

Benson gave up a sharp single to Hornets second baseman Jorge Bojorquez in the first. That proved to be the last time the Hornets reached base against Benson, who went on to toss six shutout innings while punching out eight.

“I was just excited to get back out there,” Benson said. “I was just following what JK was calling and locating pitches. I thought I did a good job with that.”

The Sun Devil lineup remained stagnant for the majority of the evening as Hornets starter Scott Randall struck out four of the first six hitters he faced. The Sun Devils finished with only four hits. 

The lone scoring the Devils did get came in the fifth inning when senior shortstop Drew Swift whacked a two-run triple into the left-center field gap that scored Sam Ferri and Hunter Haas. 

“There were a lot of nerves with the younger guys,” Swift said. “I’d say even myself I was a little too amped up.” 

From that point forward, ASU failed to muster much of anything at the plate as the Hornets bullpen combined to allow no hits and only two walks in three innings. So much of what ASU’s offense defined itself by last season left something to be desired. 

ASU pitching coach Jason Kelly’s bullpen also performed well up until the ninth inning. Freshmen Brock Peery and Graham Osman each pitched scoreless frames before Dennie appeared in the ninth.

“There was plenty of good tonight,” Smith said. “It was nice to get Brock out there on a college mound for the first time. If we pitch that way over the course of 56 games, we’ll be fine.”

Kelly mentioned how the back of the bullpen would be more of a three headed monster of Dennie, Osman and junior left-hander Justin Fall, who recently transitioned to that role. Still, he opted for Dennie to shut the door, after finishing last season with a 3.18 ERA in 11.1 innings.

Dennie gave up a leadoff double to Martin Simard-Vincelli before walking Bojorquez and hitting Ryan Walstad with a pitch to load the bases with only one out.

The grand slam from Bacho that followed sent the Hornet dugout into a euphoric embrace after being shut out all evening.

“Cam has been a guy who has had a lot of success and with the right handers coming up, we felt like that was a better matchup,” Smith said. “If we had that same scenario, we’d do it again. We just didn’t execute that time.”

The Devils will try to even up the series on Saturday night, but the loss is nothing short of devastating for ASU. 

First pitch for Saturday’s game is at 5:05 p.m MST and the game will be broadcasted on the ASU Live Stream.

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