(Photo: Brendan Belfield/WCSN)
Arizona State Baseball came into its series opening matchup with UC Irvine sporting a 7.64 bullpen earned run average after 12 games of nightmarish performances on the mound.
Overall, the starting pitching has been good, but on Tuesday night, it seemed to be flipped. Because when ASU sophomore right-hander Tyler Meyer took the mound for his third start against a scrappy Anteater lineup that was fresh off an extra innings win against No. 7 Oregon State, he folded.
As a result, UC Irvine outdueled the Sun Devils and grinded its way to a 4-3 victory.
Head coach Willie Bloomquist has had better luck with redshirt juniors Adam Tulloch and Kyle Luckham, but Meyer has been just as good as the mid-week arm, coming in with a 1.32 ERA in 13.2 innings.
But Meyer wasn’t as sharp as he had been coming in this time around. He walked five Anteaters and failed to work around a bases loaded jam in the fourth inning where graduate first baseman Jacob Castro doubled to bring home two runs and tie the game at three.
Meyer began to lose his handle in the second inning, where he walked three consecutive batters and allowed the first Anteater run to come across via the free pass.
In relief, sophomore right-hander Jared Glenn surrendered the go-ahead Anteater run on an RBI fielder’s choice from redshirt sophomore center fielder Nathan Church. Glenn ended his night with 1.2 innings pitched, bridging the gap between him and redshirt sophomore right-hander Christian Bodlovich who came in and pieced together perhaps his best outing thus far.
Bodlovich kept ASU within one with two perfect frames, getting six straight outs with ease while having to throw just 16 pitches.
But the night belonged to the Anteater bullpen, which combined to allow five hits following redshirt junior right-hander Michael Stanford’s 3.1 inning start, posting zeros in the run column from that point forward.
The Sun Devils didn’t waste time to get to Stanford, making the UC Irvine starter throw 33 pitches in the first inning. Redshirt sophomore shortstop Sean McLain came home on a wild pitch after doubling down the left field line in his first at-bat – he later finishing 4-for-5 – in front of sophomore designated hitter Ethan Long who came in to score on a delayed double steal of home.
Sophomore third baseman Blake Pivaroff drew a throw to second base to buy Long enough time to come home and score on the play. A sacrifice fly from freshman second baseman Alex Champagne brought home a third and final ASU run in the fourth inning.
The loss showed continued steps in the right direction for both Long and Bodlovich in particular, whose key contributions a year ago have been absent to start this season. Long is without a home run still after popping 16 last season, but after hitting just .160 through March 1, he has hit safely in each of his last five games, with multi-hit performances in the last four contests.
Long went 3-for-4 with a double and a walk on Tuesday. Bodlovich twirled his first scoreless, multi-inning outing since opening night where he went 2.2 innings against Dixie State while giving up one hit.
ASU will look to split the series on Wednesday before heading home to play San Francisco for a four-game weekend set.
