Photo: (Marlee Smith/WCSN)
The Arizona State Baseball team failed to complete the sweep of Washington on Sunday afternoon, falling in Seattle 13-6.
The first few innings were a breeze thanks to solid pitching by ASU freshman right-handed pitcher Joe Hauser and Washington’s redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher Adam Bloebaum.
Things started to go downhill for Hauser in the third. After allowing the first two guys to reach, he retired redshirt freshman infielder Christian Dicochea on a groundout, scoring redshirt junior catcher Michael Petrie. Redshirt freshman infielder Will Simpson’s two-run triple capped Hauser’s outing after 2.1 innings pitched, six hits, four runs and three strikeouts.
“It obviously wasn’t our day,” ASU head coach Tracy Smith said postgame. “They had some balls drop in and were able to capitalize.”
The Sun Devil bats would remain quiet until the top of the fifth when junior infielder Drew Swift hit his third home run of the season to cut the Washington lead in half at 4-2.
The storyline of the game was that the Huskies responded every time the Sun Devils scored. It started in the bottom of the fifth with Washington runners on first and third. Freshman infielder Nick Kresnak singled home Simpson to make it 5-2.
Redshirt freshman outfielder Cole Miller’s two-run single gave Washington its biggest lead of the afternoon at 7-2, forcing ASU to pull freshman right-handed pitcher Brock Peery in favor of redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher Christian Bodlovich, who would get junior outfielder Braiden Ward to pop out on one pitch to end the frame.
The Sun Devils would respond themselves in a big way. After two quick outs to start the sixth inning, freshman first baseman Jack Moss hit his third home run of the season to cut the deficit to 7-3.
“He’s settling in and getting his confidence going,” Smith said. “We know he’s a good hitter and he’s also settling in defensively but he’s growing and improving and that’s ultimately what you want.”
After a double by redshirt freshman outfielder Joe Lampe and redshirt senior catcher Sam Ferri walked, redshirt freshman outfielder Kai Murphy clubbed his fourth home run of the season, a three-run blast that made it just a 7-6 game in the sixth.
Washington responded on three extra-base hits. Senior infielder Ramon Bramasco tripled home Dicochea followed by back-to-back doubles by redshirt senior outfielder Christian Jones and Simpson pushing the Husky lead back to 10-6.
Washington would tack on a few more insurance runs and the Sun Devil bats would go quietly the rest of the afternoon.
ASU will finish the road trip in Las Vegas at UNLV on Tuesday night before coming home to host Stanford in a three-game set beginning Friday.
