Arizona State (7-7) collapsed in the ninth inning of a 6-4 loss to Oregon (10-4) Saturday night at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
The Sun Devils led most of the game, but freshman closer Cole Carlon struggled in the final frame.
Carlon allowed three runs on four hits and only recording two outs.
The biggest swing of the night came from Oregon’s junior designated hitter Jeffery Heard. The junior cleared the left field wall for a two-run homer in the ninth that put the Ducks up for good.
The Devils planned to roll with Grand Canyon transfer senior lefty Connor Markl on the mound, but it was freshman right-hander Adam Behrens who got the start instead.
ASU manager Willie Bloomquist said postgame that Markl is dealing with “tricep tendonitis” but shouldn’t miss much time.
Bloomquist told Behrens before Friday’s walk-off win that he would be starting on Saturday.
“Adam doesn’t care when he pitches,” Bloomquist said. “He knows that’s his role. He’s going to start, he’s going to come out of the pen. Wherever he’s going to be used, he just goes out and gets outs. I wish they all had the mentality that he has, just ‘whatever you need, Coach, I’m game.’”
The Ducks got on the board first with an RBI single from senior center fielder Bryce Boettcher in the second inning, but the Sun Devils responded with two runs of their own.
Junior catcher Ryan Campos led off the Devils half of the inning with a home run off the roof of the bullpen in right field, extending his on-base streak to 24 consecutive games.
Freshman designated hitter Brandon Compton would later come around to score to take the lead on an Oregon error.
From there, Arizona State held the lead until the final frame. Redshirt sophomore right fielder Nick McLain and junior first baseman Jacob Tobias hit back-to-back homers in the third, McLain’s first of the season, to give ASU a 4-1 lead.
Oregon’s freshman starter Toby Twist had only allowed one homer in 11.1 innings pitched prior to Saturday. The Sun Devils tagged Twist for three solo shots on the night.
Behrens turned in his longest start of the season, lasting 4.1 innings, giving up four runs, three earned, before the surging Devils bullpen took over.
Sophomore left-hander Ben Jacobs threw 2.2 scoreless innings in relief and racked up five straight strikeouts. Senior Hunter Omlid also threw a scoreless inning before Bloomquist turned the ball over to Carlon for the save opportunity.
Since the Sun Devils embarked on a road trip to Texas, where they faced two of the top teams in the nation, the struggling bullpen seemed to have turned the page. Entering the ninth inning on Saturday, the ASU relievers had only allowed one earned run in 21 innings of relief.
Carlon’s performance meant ASU couldn’t close the door on a 2-0 start to conference play.
A leadoff double by the Ducks’ sophomore second baseman Drew Smith set the table for Heard’s game-winning opposite-field jack. Carlon let up another run on an RBI single before being pulled and picking up his first career blown save. Bloomquist reiterated his sentiment from Friday night’s win: every out matters.
“Like I said yesterday,” Bloomquist began. “27-out dogfight. It was the same thing today. So, we got them late yesterday, they got us late today. We [need to] turn the page and be ready to go tomorrow and compete our guts out tomorrow.”
The Sun Devils couldn’t muster any offensive production in the ninth and were held scoreless from the third inning on. After a fast start to the season, Bloomquist is looking for more consistency from the lineup moving forward.
“We were getting a lot of hits in bunches early on [this season] and a lot of baserunners everywhere creating havoc,” Bloomquist said. “Although we swung the bats a little bit better tonight and ran into a few balls and hit some home runs, they’re solo shots. We weren’t able to throw the knockout punch in there with guys on base. I’ll take the homers, sure, but it’d be nice to get some more guys on base at the top of the order.”
Arizona State fell back to .500 on the season with the loss, while Oregon registered its 10th win of the season. Both squads will settle the series Sunday afternoon at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
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