Sun Devils fall short in back and forth thriller with No. 7 Stanford

(Photo via Sun Devil Athletics)

PHOENIX — Over the last two games for Arizona State baseball, one thing has become apparent — they are capable of going blow for blow with one of the best teams in college baseball, a far cry from where they were a year ago, where they were swept.

In game one of ASU’s series against No. 7 Stanford (30-13, 17-6 Pac-12), the No. 20 Sun Devils (29-17, 20-7 Pac-12) came up just short, with the Cardinal answering every one of ASU’s punches. It is the sign of a great team, and in a 12-11 back-and-forth thriller that had five lead changes, Stanford stole a win that the Sun Devils thought they should have had.

“I just hate losing. It’s no fun, of course, especially when you put up 11 runs against a Stanford team. You gotta win that game,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “The message to the guys is to try and stay positive, and then we can do about today or yesterday, but we got to focus on tomorrow.”

Against Oregon, junior righty Khristian Curtis had one of his worst starts of the season, surrendering eight earned runs on nine hits and walking three batters in just 3.0 innings pitched. Saturday was a chance for Curtis to get not only ASU back on the right track but himself as well.

However, in the top of the first, Stanford struck early as junior infielder Tommy Troy, who hit a home run in Friday’s game, stayed hot, crushing a 0-2 Curtis offspeed pitch over the Sun Devil Baseball Honor Wall in left-center field. One inning later, sophomore two-way player Jake Sapien doubled the Cardinal lead, crushing a 2-1 pitch that soared 440 feet through the warm Arizona air.

Not to be outdone, junior infielder Luke Keaschall kept the solo shot train going, leading off the second with a homer of his own. Keaschall’s trip around the bases sparked a monster second inning for the Sun Devils that saw them score six runs, beginning and ending with a homerun from a Luke. With two runners on, Keaschall’s double-play partner, freshman infielder Luke Hill, showed off his opposite-field power, depositing a ball over the right-field fence to push the ASU lead to 6-2.

Keaschall wasn’t done. One inning later in the third, Keaschall led off the inning with another home run. The two-homer day was made all the more impressive when Bloomquist revealed that Keaschall was playing through a 103-degree fever.

“He’s been sick as a dog the past two days and hasn’t said a word about it,” Bloomquist said. “I told him to stay home today and come after batting practice just to try to get some rest. He makes zero excuses. The kid comes to play every day regardless if he’s sick, wounded, hurt, whatever. I think in today’s day and age, that’s very tough to find.”

Bolstered by his new lead, Curtis shut down the Cardinal in order to retire the side in the top of the third, but the fourth was a different story. Removed without getting a single out in the inning, Curtis surrendered six earned runs as Stanford recorded five straight hits to erase the Sun Devil’s five-run lead, taking a 9-7 lead of their own.

The nightmare inning gave Curtis back-to-back starts in which he has allowed eight earned runs, and suddenly a team that had a lot of pitching depth to start the season appears to have trouble with its starting rotation.

“We’re playing better teams right now than we were early on,” Bloomquist said. “There’s a reason Stanford’s a top 10 team in the country; they can hit a fastball. If we can’t locate a breaking ball, we’re going to be in trouble. We can’t work behind. We can’t throw breaking balls over the middle of the plate, we have to be able to locate, and if we can’t, we’re going to give up big numbers like we did today.”

ASU scored two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game and took the lead again on a sacrifice fly from freshman right fielder Nick McLain in the fifth.

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Jonah Giblin took over for Curtis in the fourth and had only given up one run entering the top of the sixth. Giblin gave the Sun Devils the innings they needed in the middle of the game in order to stabilize and take the lead. However, in the top of the sixth, a ground ball booted off of Hill’s glove at shortstop trickling into the outfield and allowing Troy to come around to tie up the game at 10-10.

Bloomquist has been critical of his team’s lack of focus in the little moments, and the error by Hill was not the only one that came back to bite ASU. With each team tallying another run in the sixth, a scoreless seventh meant that this thriller of the game would enter the eighth tied 11-11.

Junior first baseman Carter Graham singled to lead off the inning for the Cardinal and was able to advance to second on a passed ball from sophomore catcher Ryan Campos and later to third on a wild pitch from junior righty Owen Stevenson.

The Cardinal had gotten a runner to third without having to really work for it, and Graham came to score the twelfth and final run for Stanford on a 6-4-3 double play. Losing by one to a team as good as Stanford hurts, especially when you score double-digit runs, and while Stanford played a clean game, ASU committed two too many errors by the end.

“It’s crucial that we can make the routine plays routine because it helps that [pitcher] out and saves his arm, gets us more outs, keeps the runs down,” Keaschall said. “It hurts, but I mean, you’re going to make errors. It’s baseball. Every team in the nation is gonna make errors. It’s part of the game. It’s why it’s so hard. It’s not like it’s Luke’s fault or my fault or [Campos’]. Just happens, but I mean, you gotta do what you can with it.”

Sunday represents the final chance for ASU to salvage a series in the Pac-12’s potentially defining regular-season champion series, but the last two games haven’t given the Sun Devils’ a reason for doubt.

“It’s the same mentality,” Keaschall said. “We played two tough games, and odds are we aren’t gonna lose the third. Those are 50/50 ball games, both of them. They came out on top; when it comes to tomorrow, I like our odds.”