Just one day after Arizona State (7-4) suffered a blown save in the ninth inning–which ultimately led to a 7-6 loss in extra-innings to Minnesota (4-4)–disaster struck again. However, this time, it stepped up to the plate in the eighth and went by the name of Jake Perry.
In his first at-bat of the season, the senior infielder came in off the bench to face ASU freshman right-handed pitcher Eli Buxton who looked to help the Devils escape a one out, bases-loaded jam.
With one swing of the bat, Perry erased a 4-1 Sun Devil lead and drove a ball well over the right field fence to deliver the go-ahead grand slam to secure Minnesota’s 6-4 win over ASU.
— Minnesota Baseball (@GopherBaseball) March 2, 2025
After yet another heartbreaking loss, head coach Willie Bloomquist came to the defense of his freshman.
“I take the responsibility on this one tonight,” Bloomquist said. “I put a freshman in a really tough spot there with Buxton in the eighth … not saying he can’t get that done. That’s why I brought him in there. I thought he could. But that’s a tough situation to bring a freshman into.”
As the Sun Devils’ bullpen began to sputter late, so did their offense.
The Maroon and Gold could not muster a single run across its final five offensive frames. Minnesota sophomore right-handed pitcher Tyler Hemmesch shut the door on ASU’s late efforts and tossed the final four scoreless innings to pick up the win.
“I didn’t think he (Hemmesch) had electric stuff,” ASU junior outfielder Isaiah Jackson said. “On the mound [with] his presence he was feeling himself pretty well … I think we just kind of let off the gas a little bit in those later innings, and then he got comfortable, and it was bad timing for us.”
In its mostly quiet day at the plate, Sparky relied on the long ball to provide most of its scoring.
Senior first baseman Jacob Tobias launched the first home run of the night with a towering solo shot off the scoreboard in right-center field. It catapulted the Devils to a 3-run frame in the second to give the home team a 3-0 lead.
Then in the fourth, Jackson followed suit with the theme of homers by smacking a no-doubter off the batter’s eye in center field to give the Maroon and Gold its fourth and final run of the night.
The solo home run highlighted a productive 3-4 day at the plate for Jackson who tallied two extra-base hits.
“When he’s going good he’s not thinking too much,” Bloomquist said of Jackson. “He just gets up and gets a pitch he can handle.”
The disappointing end to the game for the ASU pitching staff dampered a stellar outing for its starter. Senior right-handed pitcher Jack Martinez set a career-high mark in strikeouts with 11 in 5⅔ innings of work, while only conceding one earned run.
He faced some adversity early, as Minnesota threatened with runners on second and third in the top of the first. However, a calm Martinez swiftly worked out of the jam by striking out one Golden Gopher and getting another to line out to escape the jam.
After the shaky opening frame, Martinez adjusted his approach to kickstart a dominant outing.
“Getting in the zone early and getting to two strikes fast [leads to a] pitcher’s win almost all the time, and so that’s kind of the mentality I had,” Martinez said.
His two-strikeout first inning became a precursor for a punchout-filled performance. In the first four innings, he struck out at least two Golden Gophers in each individual frame–including a fourth inning in which he fanned Minnesota three times.
“All my stuff was working, I was able to get ahead a lot of the time and [with] my out pitches I had more than one today,” Martinez said. “My changeup was working late, slider was working late, and then [I] mixed it up and went fastball heavy at certain times just to keep them from getting a consistent approach. So I felt fairly confident with a lot of my stuff today.”
In spite of the impressive day on the hill for Martinez, it proved to be all for naught, as the Sun Devil bullpen gave up a combined five runs in the final 3 ⅓ innings.
Still, Bloomquist remains hopeful in his streaky group out of the pen.
“At times they’ve been outstanding and really electric, and other times we’ve scuffled a little bit,” Bloomquist said. “So bottom line we have the pieces to do it. We just have to continue breathing positivity into these guys and try to put them in the right situations. Ultimately, somebody’s going to have to come in in tough situations and be able to get us out of there and get the last three outs or last six outs, but we’re still trying to find that mix.”
After dropping two-straight to the Golden Gophers, ASU will look to salvage the series tomorrow at 1 p.m. MST.
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