(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)
The Sun Devils suffered a devastating 7-6 loss Tuesday night after allowing a five-run ninth inning, and were unable to respond Wednesday night, dropping another to the Cal State Fullerton Titans by a final score of 2-1.
Freshman right-hander Brady Corrigan started on the mound for the first time since Opening Weekend, and strung together an eye-opening performance. Corrigan tossed six strong innings, allowing just one unearned run and two hits.
At one point in the game, Corrigan retired nine straight Titan batters, and in head coach Tracy Smith’s words, exceeded his expectations.
“I thought he really looked solid,” Smith said. “That’s what you’re looking for in the Pac-12.”
Unfortunately for Corrigan, his offense was largely unable to mount any type of pressure against the Titan pitching staff. Gage Canning’s third-inning solo home run that tied the game at one was the most damage done all night by the Sun Devils. Collectively, they were 6-30 at the plate and managed just two base runners after the third inning.
Neither team could mount any serious threat through the middle innings, until the Sun Devil defense betrayed them once again in the late stages of the game.
With two outs and the bases loaded against Connor Higgins in the eighth inning, Titan shortstop Sahid Valenzuela poked a weak ground ball out in front of home plate. Sophomore catcher Lyle Lin had the opportunity to make a play on it, but lost his footing on the wet grass, allowing Hank LoForte to score.
LoForte’s run and the loss was charged to Chaz Montoya, as the sophomore dropped to 0-5 on the season.
Wednesday marked the Sun Devils’ second consecutive one-run loss, and their fourth in the last week going back to the Washington State series.
“We just gotta find a way to win,” Smith said. “Tonight, kind of a freak play there…good baseball game tonight, we just came out on the wrong end of it.”
Smith is trying to find the positives in his team’s struggles, as he is attempting to focus more on the long-term rather than short.
“We [the coaches] were talking earlier on the concept of are we failing forward, are we learning from our mistakes?” he said, “We want to be in the hunt for the national championship and we feel like we have the personnel to do that, we just have to give them some time.”
The idea of ‘failing forward’ is not something that will happen overnight, but from the eyes of Smith, it is something that is helping the Sun Devils slowly progress through continuous growth.
With the loss tonight, Arizona State moves to 13-16 on the season, while Cal State Fullerton moves to 12-15.
ASU will host the USC Trojans for three games this weekend at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. First pitch on Friday and Saturday night is set for 6:30 PM MST, while Sunday’s finale will get underway at 12:30 PM MST.
