(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
Just when one might have thought that the back-and-forth duel was over and silence would have washed over the crowd, Phoenix Municipal Stadium was jolted back to life in the sixth inning on Sunday afternoon.
It would stay that way until the very last out, as Arizona State Baseball held on to beat Rhode Island 14-13, clinching a sweep.
After two quiet innings for the Rams, redshirt junior first baseman Xavier Vargas hit a two-run home run to extend the Rams’ lead to 9-5 in the sixth inning. With the Sun Devils not registering a hit for three straight innings, it was a gut-check moment in the bottom half of the frame.
With the bases loaded and no outs, ASU redshirt junior shortstop Drew Swift got the scoring started with an RBI single to left field. After Rams shortstop Alex Ramirez bobbled redshirt freshman second baseman Sean McLain’s grounder to cut the deficit to two, freshman designated hitter Ethan Long made the comeback complete. Long scorched a double to the left field wall to score all three runners on base, giving the Sun Devils a 10-9 lead.
“I thought we did a good job on capitalizing on a couple mistakes they made defensively,” ASU head coach Tracy Smith said. “With Ethan’s big hit, that certainly let our guys, let our dugout know, ‘Hey, we’re right back in this thing.’ So, it was a little bit of them and a little bit of us I think in that bottom sixth.”
ASU would again trade punches with the Rams in the seventh inning.
Rhode Island knotted it back up with an RBI single to left field by redshirt senior right-fielder Josh Brodeur. The play could have been close at home plate, but the relay was cut off by freshman third baseman Hunter Haas before the ball could make it.
Again with the bases juiced and no outs, ASU responded with a three-run bottom half – with Long and McLain once more leading the way – to provide some insurance at 13-10.
With only two innings left, it would be a matter of whose pitcher could finally put some zeroes on the board.
Redshirt junior right-hander Brady Corrigan did the trick in the eighth inning, coming in and delivering a massive strikeout to end the inning and escape a jam. Things were less pretty in the ninth inning as the Rams – who had only been swept once in 2021 prior to this weekend – came out swinging.
An RBI single by redshirt senior catcher Sonny Ulliana started the Rhode Island run, but a potential comeback became an imminent threat after Vargas blasted his second homer of the day over the ASU bullpen, cutting the Rams’ deficit to one run.
In another gut-check moment, Corrigan stayed in the game and finally finished the job on a game-ending strikeout. With Smith having to exhaust seven pitchers on the day, he was pleased with Corrigan being able to step in with a veteran presence.
“What I liked is [that] a mature Brady Corrigan, who’s been around for a while, who’s got some seasoning to him, didn’t rattle,” he said. “I would argue sometimes on a home run like that, [it] brings them right back [and] they’re one swing away with the wind howling out, that maybe a lesser person, a less-focused person would have let the emotions of the game catch up to them.
“I liked how he refocused and reset his mind, and he got back out there to make quality pitches to end the game.”
Back in the first inning, Long pounced on a ball to the opposite field to add to his home run streak. The bomb gave him eight home runs in his last seven games, which has never been done before in ASU Baseball history. Over his last seven games, Long has an absurd 1.433 slugging percentage and a 1.978 OPS. He is now one home run away from passing ASU legend Barry Bonds for the second most home runs (11) in a season by a freshman.
“Honestly I can’t think of any words to describe it,” Long said. “Just keep working hard and [be] confident in my work, so [I] get up there thinking I can do something to help the team win every at-bat. That’s my goal every at-bat, because like I’ve said before many times, I hate losing more than I like winning.”
Smith also put the feat into perspective: “It’s impressive, it’s right up there. You referenced [Sun Devil alum and 2020 first overall pick Spencer] Torkelson, it reminds me of that. Kyle Schwarber … they basically single-handedly just say, ‘Hey man get on my back, and I’m going to carry the team for a little bit.’”
On Sunday, Long went 3-5 with six RBI, the most by any Sun Devil this season. McLain also carried the load, going 2-4 with four RBI.
While this loss gives Rhode Island a 17-19-1 record this season, there were mixed reactions from ASU postgame about sweeping an inferior opponent.
“I sit here today and tell you, I am proud as hell at what these guys are doing,” Smith said. “The fact that we just swept a team, I’m not going to sit here and apologize for it. I don’t really care who it is. We’ve been battling, we’re going to continue to battle.”
Meanwhile, McLain had other thoughts.
“At the end of the day, it is Rhode Island,” McLain said. “I think their pitchers are a little worse than Pac-12 pitching. It’s cool we got the sweep this weekend, but I think we were supposed to do that.”
Coming into today, the Sun Devils were ranked sixth in the Pac-12 Conference standings. They now have four conference matchups left on the season, including two against teams ranked higher than them (UCLA, Oregon State) and one that is right on their tails (California).
“We can’t be satisfied with a weekend sweep,” McLain said. “We’re satisfied now, but come Monday, we still got work to do. We want to be first. We want to win a championship here.”
