Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN
Not being able to make the routine plays will come back to haunt you in baseball more than any other sport. Once again for Arizona State (2-4) in 2018, not being able to make a routine play cost them another game as they fell 6-5 to the Saint Mary’s Gaels (4-2), losing their third straight game.
With the game tied at five in the ninth inning and Joey Fiske on first base, Sun Devils’ closer Connor Higgins failed to execute a throw to second base trying to get the lead runner on a Brett Rasso sacrifice bunt attempt. Higgins’ throw sailed out of the reach of freshman shortstop, only to be stopped by second baseman Alika Williams.
This play proved to be the difference-maker in the inning and ultimately the game.
An infield single by St. Mary’s pitcher Kevin Milam and a wild pitch scoring Fiske followed suit, ending Higgins’ day after recording just one out.
“When the game matters you gotta make that play, particularly when you’re struggling like that,” ASU head coach Tracy Smith said following the game. “We have given away and thrown away a lot of bunts in crucial situations and it got us again today… [Higgins’] decision to go to second base was excellent, he just didn’t execute the throw.”
The day did not start out well for Arizona State either, as senior starting pitcher Eli Lingos surrendered three first-inning runs on an RBI double from Edward Haus and a two-run ground-rule double off the bat of Austin Chauvin.
Less than 24 hours after Friday night starter Spencer Van Scoyoc failed to make it out of the third inning while allowing four runs (three earned), the Sun Devils were put behind the 8-ball early once again.
However, their offense woke up in the second inning and came to life with some authority.
Jump-started by freshman Spencer Torkelson’s fourth home run of the season that cut the deficit to 3-1, Arizona State recorded seven consecutive hits plating five runs in the frame off of Milam. Freshmen Trevor Hauver, Williams and Swift all recorded RBI hits in the inning, with Williams’ knock being particularly special as he finally notched his first collegiate hit and RBI.
“I think more of our younger guys just have to have that moment, cause you could tell the last couple of games, he was stressing a little bit,” Lingos said about Williams’ first collegiate hit. “Today he actually looked like he was having fun out there and enjoying it. We gotta get everybody to have that moment, just that realization of, ‘Hey I can do this.’ I just think we’ll be a lot better as a team once everybody gets that feeling.”
Following the second-inning outburst both offenses stagnated as Lingos and Milam traded zeroes through the sixth inning. Lingos departed with two outs in the sixth inning but turned in a solid start after the first-inning blemish, retiring ten consecutive batters from the last out of the second inning through the fifth.
“I just got more aggressive. I was feeling my way a little bit too much that first inning, and it hurt me,” Lingos said. “I just said, ‘Screw it. Go after them and be aggressive the rest of the game.’ I had my changeup today which really helped.”
Junior transfer Sam Romero came on in relief of Lingos and recorded the final out of the sixth, worked a clean seventh, but let the Gaels back in the ballgame in the top of the eighth when he surrendered a game-tying two-run home run to Gaels’ third baseman Dylan Robertson to knot the score at 5-5.
“That’s going to happen,” Smith said of Robertson’s home run. “That guy had a nine-pitch at-bat and finally put a good swing on it. I have no issue with that.”
Despite Higgins giving Saint Mary’s a lead in the top of the ninth, with the deficit kept at one thanks to Chaz Montoya inducing a ground ball to Swift and a fly ball to Canning in center, the Sun Devils put up a fight in their last turn at-bat.
Freshman outfielder Trevor Hauver laced a one-out double down the right-field line to put the tying run in scoring position, but following a pop-out from freshman pinch-hitter, Hunter Jump and an intentional walk to Canning, Swift bounced into a fielder’s choice to none other than Robertson at third to end the game.
Smith emphasized after the game that until his team can learn to make plays regardless of the situation, the struggles will continue.
“I will say, this team grew from that,” Smith said. “We know we can, we know we’re going to be in it, and it’s going to take a mindset of playing to win and not just trying to hold on and being timid. When we find that right combination of guys that are going to lay it on the line and not fear the result, I think this team has a chance to be special. I really do.”
One aspect of the game that could impact the Sun Devils heavily moving forward is the health of third baseman Carter Aldrete. The sophomore collided with Gaels catcher Jackson Thoreson in the first inning, and appeared to suffer a lower-body injury. Smith lifted Aldrete in the sixth inning, saying that “[Aldrete] didn’t look like he could move, so we took him out of there.”
No word was given on Aldrete’s status for the series finale on Sunday afternoon, with the pitching matchup expected to be Boyd Vander Kooi for ASU opposing Ken Waldichuk for Saint Mary’s. First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 PM.
Bobby Kraus is a baseball beat writer for the Walter Cronkite Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter @bobbykraus22.
