(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
Arizona State Baseball and Fairfield just couldn’t help themselves in the NCAA Baseball Tournament’s Austin Regional. On Friday night, the two went back and forth, with the Sun Devils getting out to an early lead, the Stags clawing back and taking the lead only to be topped by ASU 7-6 on a walk-off hit by redshirt freshman infielder Sean McLain.
Sunday morning, in an elimination game for both sides, a similar pattern followed.
ASU took a 5-0 lead in the third inning, only to see it disappear throughout the game and the contest end up in a 6-6 tie by the bottom of the fifth. Then, another rally occurred, although this time, it was by the Stags, who sent the Sun Devils home from Austin and ended their season by a score of 9-7.
“As a competitor, I’m really upset,” Smith said. “I hate when we lose. [When] you’ve got guys out there that are giving everything they’ve got, who have done that the entirity of the season under some unique circusmtances, it’s just tough.
“Today it just didn’t work out for us, but I thought the guys competed until the very end.”
At first, it seemed as though ASU might pay homage to Friday night. The Sun Devils earned what could be perceived as a gracious call in the top of the sixth inning as a pitch from Fairfield senior right hander Eli Oliphant ended up in the shirt pocket of the home plate umpire, triggering the two runners on second and third base to advance and give ASU a 7-6 lead.
But in the bottom half of the frame, Fairfield got its revenge. Junior infielder Justin Guerrera hit a massive three-run home run to left field off of redshirt junior right hander Brady Corrigan to put the Stags on top 9-7. While no other runs scored, redshirt freshman left hander Graham Osman spent plenty of time on the mound after coming in and eventually put Fairfield away in the frame.
“He’s one of their better players,” Smith said of Guerrera. “He’s a guy that going into the weekend you’re like, ‘He can hurt you.’ He’s one of their better hitters, and he got the breaking ball up and the way the ball was carrying today and the way it came off of his bat, you knew it was gone.”
The inning was a stinger to the Sun Devils, who seemed to have quite the grip on the game early. In the second inning, ASU put two runners on for redshirt freshman two-way player Kai Murphy, whose RBI groundout gave the Sun Devils a 1-0 lead. With two outs, redshirt junior shortstop Drew Swift hit a high triple to left center field, scoring Murphy and tagging on another ASU run to make it 2-0.
Swift’s big hit wasn’t the only one of the inning, as redshirt junior outfielder Hunter Jump brought him home with a RBI single, giving ASU a 3-0 lead.
On the mound, the Sun Devils endured adversity early but came out of it clean. Freshman right hander Jared Glenn got himself into multiple multi-baserunner situations, but didn’t allow any of them to score.
“It wasn’t like we kicked it around or walked a bunch of guys,” Smith said.
ASU only added to its run total in the next frame, as a two-run home run by redshirt freshman catcher Nate Baez extended the Sun Devils’ lead to 5-0. Freshman two-way player Ethan Long’s liner was responsible for the second run prior to Baez’s at-bat.
The rest of the game though, ASU didn’t score without letting the Stags do so as well.
In the bottom of the third inning, Fairfield graduate infielder Sean Cullen slammed a two-run home run to dead-center field to shorten the Stags’ deficit. ASU added a run in the top of the fourth due to a RBI single by freshman first baseman Jack Moss, but the Stags made a big push in the bottom half of the frame after Moss’ hit.
After two singles – one of them a well-placed bunt toward third base – Glenn threw a wild pitch which advanced both runners. With Glenn withering and ASU relievers on deck, Fairfield junior outfielder Mike Handal took to the plate and delivered with a two RBI single, putting the Stags down just 6-4.
The fifth inning saw a no-show from ASU’s bats, who produced two groundouts and a fly-out. Fairfield, however, did not produce the same results.
After a liner bounced off of his leg on the mound, Corrigan walked sophomore infielder Mike Beccheti, putting two on with two outs for sophomore outfielder Ryan Strollo. Strollo delivered the hit Fairfield had its sights set on once it began its rally down 5-0: a two RBI single that tied the game at six apiece.
“We just thought that we’d keep it close and keep exchanging punches,” Smith said. “We knew they were going to chip away.”
ASU’s season ends with two different potential perspectives. One sees a team that lost three of its top starting pitchers to Tommy John Surgery within the season’s first weeks, survived bullpenning over half of its games as a result, watched potential freshman stars like Long, Moss and freshman third baseman Hunter Haas emerge and somehow still make the postseason.
“It’s always going to be tough and look and look at what this team was,” Swift said. “There’s not much you could. All you can do is look forward. All of those freshman that stepped up and contributed this year – it was insane what they did.”
But the second perspective sees a team that blew leads of 5-0 and 4-1 against a mid-level conference opponent within days of one another, and didn’t live up to the high standard of baseball that ASU has produced in the past.
“I think you have to look at it in the totality,” Smith said. “It isn’t just this game.
“You run the risk of saying it’s an excuse or whatever, but you’ve got a young team whose strength was the pitching. [And] then the pitching is taken away from you.”
Regardless, Smith is proud of what was accomplished.
“I just told the team, as I reflect back on years of coaching, that this will be among the most memorable for me because it was one of the most challenging, and while it was challenging, it was rewarding,” he said.
