(Photo: Paige Cook/WCSN)
Following a frustrating and confusing 8-0 loss to the Stanford Cardinal on Friday evening, Arizona State Baseball fought hard but found itself in a similar situation to the series opener as it came up short 10-6 on Saturday afternoon.
Redshirt junior left-handed pitcher Adam Tulloch made his eighth start of the season, which started with two-hitless innings. However, after some hard-hit Cardinal balls and command issues, he would go on to allow three runs and three walks in 4.1 innings of work.
The Sun Devils scored more runs in the first inning than they did all in of Friday’s game thanks to sophomore third baseman Ethan Long’s solo home run and redshirt sophomore right fielder Kai Murphy’s RBI single.
Murphy finished the afternoon with four base-reachs, which included three hits and two runs batted in.
The Sun Devils found themselves up 2-0 after the first inning.
Like many games prior, the Sun Devils’ bullpen was unable to limit the damage by the opposition as they allowed seven runs in the next 3.2 innings.
Stanford freshman Braden Montgomery hit a go-ahead grand slam with the game tied at five to give the Cardinal a four-run lead in the seventh inning.
The Sun Devils made things interesting down the stretch after redshirt sophomore Joe Lampe’s sacrifice fly. Long and graduate first baseman Conor Davis came up to the plate representing the tying run.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, the heavy hitters both struck out, preventing a rally from ASU.
Through the first two games of the series with Stanford, the Sun Devils have been outscored 18-6. With the loss, the Sun Devils now fall to 14-18 and 5-6 in Pac-12 Conference play.
The series finale between ASU and Stanford will take place on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. MST.
