Bullpen spoils chance for Sun Devils sweep over Cal

(Photo: ASU Athletics)

The Arizona State Sun Devils already had their fourth-straight Pac-12 Conference series win locked up, this time over the California Golden Bears. On Sunday afternoon, they turned their focus to securing their first series sweep of the season.

The Golden Bears had other ideas.

Nick Halamandaris struck for a go-ahead RBI single in the tenth inning that proved to be the decider and California tacked on another in the frame en route to a 5-3 victory over the Sun Devils, salvaging the series. The loss moved ASU to 9-4 over their last 13 games.

“Well we’ve won our last four out of five series, so that’s not easy to do in the [Pac-12 ],” Sun Devils head coach Tim Esmay said, highlighting his team’s success. His tone quickly changed. “But we’ve had opportunities the last two Sundays to sweep and we didn’t get it done. It’s not good, it’s not what we want.”

Ryan Burr was handed the loss for Arizona State. He pitched a hitless inning in the tenth for the Sun Devils, yet a hit batter and a walk, set-up the opportunity for the Golden Bears to strike for two runs in the inning and surge out to a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

After R.J. Ybarra broke through for the game’s first run in the seventh inning with an RBI single, Dalton DiNatale added another tally with a single of his own to grab the 2-0 lead and the Sun Devils seemed primed to earn the sweep.

ASU starting pitcher Darin Gillies kept the Golden Bears at bay for most of the day, allowing a mere three hits and striking out six in seven innings of work.

“It was big for me to just be able to go out and compete,” Gillies said about his performance. “That’s what I try to tell these guys I’m going to do every single Sunday is just go out and compete and work my hardest to throw strikes and keep us in games.”

Once Esmay made the move to the bullpen, the Cal bats came alive.

Eric Melbostad relieved Gillies to open the eighth and walked the first two batters he faced, opening the door for Devon Rodriguez to lace a single to centerfield that plated both runners and tied the game.

“I have full belief and trust in our guys in the bullpen,” Gillies said after the game in defense of Esmay’s decision to pull him. “it’s just that’s the way the ball bounces sometimes. I wouldn’t have changed it. Did I want to keep going? Yes, but if we did it all over again, I have full belief in all those guys back there. It just didn’t bounce our way today.”

An inning later, Brian Celsi led off the ninth with a double for the Bears. A sacrifice bunt moved him to third and a sacrifice fly from Lucas Ecreg brought him around to notch the go-ahead run.

Facing little hope with two out and nobody on in the their go at it in the ninth, the Sun Devils found a way to stay alive.

Nate Causey singled and Dalton DiNatale did the same two batters later to bring around Causey, who had moved up to second on a wild pitch, and knot things up, 3-3.

California starting pitcher Ryan Mason tossed four scoreless innings and allowed five hits in a no-decision. Trevor Hildenberger threw 2 ⅓ innings of relief, allowing a run on two hits, to earn the victory.

The Sun Devils collected 10 hits on the day but their 13 stranded baserunners told the story in Esmay’s mind.

“The story of today was inevitably that we always had a bad at-bat,” he said. “When we got something going, somebody gave us a really bad at-bat and that’s why we didn’t get anything rolling today, that’s why it was tough to score.”

The loss moves ASU to 19-14 overall and 9-6 in the Pac-12, good for fifth in the conference.

The Sun Devils will look to bounce back quickly in an early-week meeting with the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels set for Tuesday night. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the game’s starters have yet to be announced.

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