(Photo: Connor Gleason/WCSN)
PHOENIX – On a warm spring night, the little baseball stadium located on the corner of Priest and Van Buren didn’t feel so minuscule. With one out in the ninth inning, sophomore second baseman Beckett Zavorek stepped up to the plate with a chance to tie the game, or even win it.
The tying run stood 90 feet away, and chants of “Let’s go Devils” roared through the Phoenix air.
When the pitch came toward him, Zavorek swung his metal bat and sent it loudly into the sky. While the ball tends to travel at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, on this particular occasion, it died. The ball wound up in the glove of left fielder Colton Griffin, who fired toward home plate, beating junior left fielder Sam Myers, who attempted to tag up, ending the game.
Myers’ failed tag-up was one of many missed opportunities for ASU (12-5, 0-1 Big 12) on Friday as it fell short to No. 17 TCU (11-6, 1-0 Big 12) 5-4 in a back-and-forth game decided by the smallest of margins.
“Our guys made it interesting there in the ninth,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Our guys battled back a couple of different times and had a chance to tie it or win it there in the ninth. We had the guys that we wanted up, the kid just made a heck of a throw there to end the game.”
Although the game came down to the last play, the Sun Devils truly lost it earlier on.
After their opening series sweep over Omaha, Bloomquist talked about how walking too many batters would cost them against higher-quality opponents. The Sun Devils gave the Horned Frogs eight free base-runners on Friday, of which three would come into score.
“The way our guys battled back was great,” Bloomquist said. “We just left a lot of runs out there, and we can’t walk the leadoff guy; several times we did that. That came back to bite us. Those types of things against good teams you can’t afford to do.”
It wasn’t just on the pitching side that the Sun Devils made their mistakes. The hitters struggled in big situations, going 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position. In its losses – all to ranked teams – ASU is 5-for-28 with RISP, sporting a whopping .178 average.
“It’s a matter of executing in big situations, in big moments,” Bloomquist said. “Eliminating the free passes, we have to do a better job at that. We have to do a better job of two-strike hitting. So, those are the two things that bit us in Texas, and they bit us tonight.”
While ASU has been inconsistent with its play, its Friday night starting pitcher, junior ace Cole Carlon, has not. The left-hander gave the Sun Devils another five innings against the Horned Frogs, allowing one run on two hits, along with striking out a career-high 11 batters.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, Carlon got himself into a couple of jams, including having the bases loaded in the fourth inning. Although Carlon did work his way out of them, his pitch count rose to 96 through five innings.
“He was good,” Bloomquist said. “He had one mistake. He gave up a homer and pitched his way out of some trouble a couple of times. His pitch count got up there pretty high through five. We have to try to be more economical with him to try to get him through another inning or two.”
Carlon wasn’t the only Sun Devil pitcher who was lighting up the strike zone, as the team combined for 18 strikeouts on the night, also a season-high. While the strikeouts did help limit the damage done by TCU’s offense, it still wasn’t enough to prevent runs from crossing the plate.
“We have to be able to throw strikes,” Bloomquist said. “We did strike out a ton of guys tonight, but the free passes ultimately, at the end of the game, are what killed us. We have to clean that up.”
The positive news for the Sun Devils is that they will have two more opportunities this weekend to earn a ranked conference win against the Horned Frogs. ASU will open its second game of the series on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. MST at Muni.
“Just came up short,” redshirt junior infielder Garrett Michel said. “The good thing about baseball is we have another one tomorrow. So, I think we’re all pretty eager to get back out there tomorrow, just execute better and come out with a win.”
