Arizona State baseball (26-16, 12-7 Big 12) began its five-game homestand with an 8-3 win over Brigham Young on Thursday night.
Sun Devil junior left-handed pitcher Ben Jacobs pitched a brilliant 6.1 innings, striking out eleven Cougars. The ASU bats hung a pair of crooked frames to propel the Maroon and Gold to victory in Game 1.
Despite striking out the first batter of the evening, Jacob’s outing didn’t start smoothly. The Cougars rattled off back-to-back hits, culminating in an RBI single from senior first baseman Cooper Vest.
Jacobs then plunked BYU junior right fielder Bryker Hurdsman to load the bases. Cougar graduate third baseman Brock Watkins followed Hurdsman by chopping a weak grounder to Sun Devil senior shortstop Matt King, who attempted to turn an unassisted double play. However, Watkins reached base safely, allowing another run to score for BYU on a fielder’s choice.
Nonetheless, that ended as the extent of the damage inflicted on ASU, which found itself down 2-0 early.
Eventually, Jacobs settled in. After a rocky first, he recorded three straight scoreless innings, striking out five hitters.
“They came out and were getting some good swings on him early, so that was a little concerning, but the way he settled in and competed was phenomenal,” Sun Devils head coach Willie Bloomquist said.
With the Sun Devil bats needing to answer, the middle infield got things going. Junior second baseman Kyle Walker led off the bottom of the first with an infield hit and proceeded to steal second base. Later in the inning, King continued his hot streak at the dish by sending a single into center field, scoring Walker.
Following a scoreless bottom of the second, Walker and King struck again in the scoring column in the third.
This time, Walker reached via a walk and made his way to third due to a fielder’s choice and a balk from Cougars sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Gubler. King lined one to right field, which proved deep enough for Walker to tag up and tie the game on a sacrifice fly out.
Then, Gubler ran into issues with his command. He hit back-to-back Sun Devils, bringing junior right fielder Kien Vu to the dish with ASU threatening.
BYU played a shift to the lefty’s pull side, but it couldn’t stop Vu who snuck a ground ball past BYU junior second baseman Luke Anderson, who had the ball go off his glove and into right field. An errant throw from Hurdsman in right allowed Sparky to take the lead.
The bats stayed hot in the bottom of the fourth with sophomore designated hitter Jax Ryan sending a single to center field. Two batters later, it was Walker’s turn once again, as he doubled to the right-center gap, scoring Ryan. One pitch later, Sun Devils freshman left fielder Landon Hairston sent a wall scraper to the opposite field for a two-run home run, his third of the season.
“I thought it was going to be a line out, to be honest, and I was about to be very mad but thankfully it kept carrying,” Hairston said jokingly.
In the top of the fifth, Jacobs’ smooth performance hit some turbulence.
He came out walking back-to-back batters and surrendered a single to load the bases with no one out. Hurdsman came through for the visitors with a sacrifice fly to cut into the lead. Yet, Jacobs managed to regain his composure on the mound, striking out a pair of Cougars to end the inning.
“I just trust my stuff and trust my confidence,” Jacobs said. “That’s something I pride myself on is my confidence on the mound.”
Jacobs cruised through the sixth and recorded the first out of the seventh before being taken out of the game. He once again threw over 100 pitches and recorded double-digit strikeouts for the third time in his last four starts.
“The splitter was definitely working. I threw it a lot tonight, and it was getting a lot of swings and misses and ground balls that I needed,” Jacobs said.
His coach certainly noticed as well.
“Tonight was the best I’ve seen his splitter look, and when he has that pitch, he can be pretty special,” Bloomquist said.
With a comfortable lead, the bullpen got the job done, holding BYU scoreless for the rest of the game. Additionally, King drove in Walker one final time to secure the five-run victory.
Game 2 of the series is set for Friday night at 6:30 p.m. AZT, as ASU tries to secure the series victory and keep pace in the Big 12 standings.
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