(Photo: Joshua Eaton/WCSN)
PHOENIX – Arizona State sophomore right-handed starter Jaden Alba found himself just one pitch away from escaping a third inning where he allowed two extra base hits and a run when a miscue led to disaster.
After throwing 20 pitches and recording two outs, Alba found himself in a full count against Texas Tech junior designated hitter Antonelli Savattere. With pressure on both parties, Alba gave his opponent a pitch to hit. Savattere swung at the offering and made contact, sending a soft line drive just to the right of senior shortstop Matt King.
It looked like Alba had successfully sent his teammates back to the dugout, trailing by only one run, but King couldn’t make the play. The shortstop took a couple of quick steps to his right towards the hole and stuck his glove up, making contact with the ball but failing to secure it in his pocket. The ball fell to the ground, and Texas Tech stayed alive with runners on the corners. Anyone who’s spent time watching day baseball at Phoenix Municipal Stadium knows that’s a dangerous thing to do.
“We know when the ball’s we cannot give teams extra outs,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said.
Sophomore catcher Davis Rivers stepped up to the box and took advantage of the mistake, turning what could’ve been a 3-2 score after two and a half inning into a 6-2 ballgame after sending the first pitch he saw over the right center field wall. Texas Tech (12-23, 8-10 Big 12) would ride that wave of momentum for the rest of the game, defeating Arizona State (25-25, 11-7) 12-8 and successfully avoiding a Sun Devils sweep.
“Mistakes are part of the game, we’ve got to be mentally better than that,” Bloomquist said. “But, I get more disappointed in our position guys. We’ve got to make plays for (the pitchers).”
Miscues were an unfortunate theme early on in the game for the Sun Devils. King was thrown out trying to tag up from second base on a ball hit to left field in the first inning and the defense struggled to make plays. In the first inning, junior right fielder Kien Vu had trouble picking up a ball down the right field line, resulting in the Red Raiders having a runner on third base who scored on a two-run home run.
The strange start occurred after a strange ending to the second game of the series. After a rain delay prematurely halted the ending of Friday night’s game, it resumed in the bottom half of the seventh inning at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, with the bases loaded and redshirt junior second baseman Kyle Walker at the dish. The Sun Devils were able to take the lead and played nearly flawlessly, winning 9-8.
“I think that emotional high probably hurt us going into the next game,” Bloomquist said. “… It was an emotional night last night and (we) came out on top, today was great. I was hoping we would carry that momentum into game two, but (we) just didn’t perform the way we’re supposed to.”
Arizona State started the second game of the unique doubleheader with a strong offensive showing. Walker and freshman designated hitter Landon Hairston opened the bottom half of the first inning with a double and the latter’s first collegiate triple, which scored Walker. King continued the scoring, bringing in Hairston on an error by Texas Tech’s third baseman.
After the freshman crossed the plate, the Sun Devils weren’t able to bring another runner home against Texas Tech’s junior right-handed starter Zane Petty until the eighth, when Hairston scored junior center fielder Isaiah Jackson on a double down the left field line.
“Sometimes when you have early success off of an arm, you think it’s going to be easy the rest of the way, and you get out of your game plan, and that’s a sign of immaturity at times,” Bloomquist said. “We’ve preached upon that pretty much all year long. Get pitches above the zone and stay out from below the zone.”
The ASU hitters were fooled by Petty in a major way, allowing him to face the minimum five times and at one point retire 10 Sun Devils in a row. His stuff wasn’t overwhelming – he only recorded five strikeouts – but he was able to consistently locate his breaking balls low in the zone and below it to induce weak contact. In the end, Petty only allowed one walk and six hits in his eighth innings of work, leaving the Sun Devils searching for answers.
“Baseball has those days where offense just doesn’t click,” Hairston said. “I think that (today) was one of those days. I don’t think he was too overpowering for us. Just some days you have it, some days you don’t. That’s baseball.”
Hairston and Walker were the only Sun Devils to record two hits during the course of the game. The Freshman has showcased his ability to get on base throughout the season, but has recently elevated his game, stringing together extra-base hits since he started borrowing a bat from senior first baseman Jacob Tobias.
“Once I started picking up that bat, (the) power numbers kind of came,” Hairston said. “Approach wise, just trying to stick to the middle of the field and have good at-bats every time I’m up there and put the ball in play hard.”
The rest of the lineup just had no solutions in the box against Petty. Arizona State’s bullpen was able to limit the Red Raiders’ offense in relief of Alba for a stretch of the game. Sophomore righty Josh Butler and freshman southpaw Easton Barrett combined for four innings of one-run ball, but it didn’t matter.
“Josh and Easton came in and they gave us a chance to get going offensively, that was kind of the disappointing part, putting up zeros,” Bloomquist said. “It’s like ‘come on guys, let’s go, they’re giving us a shot to crawl right back in this game.’ We just couldn’t string something together there for a few innings.”
It was only after sophomore right-hander Logan Bevis replaced Petty in the ninth inning that the Sun Devils were able to get the offense going, scoring five runs in the frame. However, it was too little, too late.
Baseball is a game of adjustments and even after a winning series, there’s work to be done for the Sun Devils. Both Bloomquist and his players know that games like this can’t happen, but to stop them from happening is easier said than done.
“There’s things we can certainly do better,” Bloomquist said. “We know that. It’s a work in progress.”
