Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN
It wasn’t an ideal trip to northern California for the Arizona State baseball team (36-15, 15-11 Pac-12), as Mother Nature forced a failed attempt for a doubleheader on Sunday at Evans Diamond against the California Golden Bears (30-18, 15-11 Pac-12). As a result, the Sun Devils will return home with their sights set on the final three games of the 2019 regular season, and the final three chances to bolster their NCAA tournament resume as best they can against the No. 3 Stanford Cardinal.
GAME 1
The series got off to an exhilarating start on Friday night, as the two teams battled into extra innings in a classic back-and-forth affair.
California shortstop Sam Wezniak got things going in the bottom of the second inning off Arizona State ace Alec Marsh, launching a three-run home run, his tenth round-tripper of 2019.
The Sun Devil offense awoke in the top of the fifth, as a Carter Aldrete solo home run and a Trevor Hauver RBI double closed the deficit to 3-2.
The bomb from Wezniak didn’t do much to faze Marsh on the night as the junior hurled six innings while allowing four total runs, two of them earned, on just four hits while striking out 10 for the second-straight start and third time this season.
Wezniak was involved in the scoring for the Golden Bears once again though in the sixth, as he reached base on a dropped third strike and subsequent wild pitch from Marsh with the bases loaded, scoring Andrew Vaughn to make the score 4-2.
The Sun Devils worked some familiar late-inning magic however, as Spencer Torkelson unloaded on a pitch in the seventh for his twentieth home run of the season, followed by a two-run triple in the eighth by Gage Workman that put the Devils ahead for the first time 5-4.
Vaughn made his presence felt in the bottom of the eighth, as he teed off for a solo home run with RJ Dabovich on the mound for ASU to even the score at five.
The moment of the game came in the bottom of the tenth, as California loaded the bases with nobody out against Dabovich, prompting Arizona State head coach Tracy Smith to field five infielders, bringing Hauver in from left field.
Dabovich enduced two ground balls to Alika Williams at shortstop that forced the runners out at home plate, before striking out Grant Holman to end the threat.
“[We don’t practice five infielders] a lot,” Smith said referring to the inning on Sunday afternoon. “The reason we don’t spend a lot of time on it is you don’t want to be in that position a lot, so it’s kind of a desperation play.”
An infield RBI single from Torkelson in the top of the eleventh, and three strikeouts on 14 pitches from Brady Corrigan in the bottom half secured the 6-5 win in the series opener for Arizona State.
GAME 2
With Saturday’s game postponed due to inclement weather, the hope was for the teams to play a doubleheader on Sunday, but field conditions and more incoming weather combined with Arizona State’s travel itinerary back to Phoenix allowed for just one game to be played.
Boyd Vander Kooi took the mound for the Sun Devils opposite Jared Horn for the Golden Bears.
Vander Kooi blinked first in the bottom of the third, as RBI singles by Vaughn and Korey Lee staked California to a 2-0 advantage.
Torkelson continued his attack on opposing pitching as he went deep again in the top of the fourth, his sixth home run in seven games and twenty-first of the season to make the score 2-1.
A Cameron Eden RBI single against Vander Kooi in the sixth made the score 3-1, and that number would prove to be enough for Horn, as he gave up another solo home run to Aldrete in the seventh but nothing else, as he stranded the tying run on third in the ninth to finish the complete game and secure the win for the Golden Bears.
Horn allowed five hits and struck out nine in the 122-pitch performance, while Vander Kooi lasted six innings scattering nine hits and allowing all three California runs while walking two and striking out four.
The third game of the series will not be rescheduled per the Sun Devil baseball Twitter account, which ensures that with just the three games against No. 3 Stanford remaining, the Sun Devils will finish conference play above .500 for the first time since 2016, though their chance at winning 40 games in the regular season will fall short.
