PHOENIX – Inside a packed Phoenix Municipal Stadium, the maroon and gold crowd matched the rising stakes on the field. Down just one run in the bottom of the ninth, the stage was set for Arizona State to complete a late comeback and find a tying run in its last gasp.
ASU sophomore infielder Beckett Zavorek stood in the right-hander’s batting box with runners on the corners with one out. All he needed was a fly ball to the outfield, a sacrifice fly to help junior outfielder Sam Myers reach home from third.
A fly ball is exactly what Zavorek got, skying a ball high in the sky toward left field.
The only problem? It wasn’t hit very deep. And, after the catch was made, Myers took off, attempting to beat the throw and tie the game.
Junior left fielder Colton Griffin had other ideas, rifling a throw on a rope to home plate to toss out Myers at home for the final out of the game.
As the jerseys in purple celebrated, ASU (12-5, 0-1 Big 12) trudged off the field, falling to No. 17 TCU (11-6, 1-0 Big 12) 5-4 on Friday at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Despite a career-high 11-strikeout performance from junior left-handed pitcher Cole Carlon, the Sun Devils’ offense didn’t back him up until late in the contest. By then, it was too late.
Carlon took the ball on Friday, like he’s done all spring, and delivered arguably his best performance of the young season. Although his final two innings on the hill working his way out of traffic, he made up for it with 11 strikeouts, generating multiple swing-and-misses from Horned Frogs hitters to keep the game knotted at one.
“We have to try to be a little more economical with him, to get him through another inning or two as we continue to move forward here,” ASU coach Willie Bloomquist said. “But (at the) end of the day, he battled. He pitched really well, and I think that with them having his pitches, at least they seem to, and he still did pretty well.”
Carlon lowered his ERA to 2.77 and has a total of 40 strikeouts through 26 innings pitched.
Though strikeouts were plentiful, Arizona State’s pitching staff on Friday, with the team racking up 18, its walks proved costly. The Sun Devils allowed seven free passes on the night, including leadoff walks in the seventh and eighth innings to give TCU the lead and the eventual win.
“We have to be able to throw strikes,” Bloomquist said. “And we did strike out a ton of guys tonight, but the free passes, ultimately, at the end of the game, are what killed us. So we got to clean that up. We have to be better at that.”
The Sun Devils’ hot bats also cooled down after a 10-run showing against Arizona on Tuesday. The team picked up 10 hits on Friday but didn’t start gaining traction until later in the ballgame.
Even with all the talent that’s in the starting nine, the absence of junior infielder Nu’u Contrades, who’s out with an injury, has put a dent in ASU’s production.
Contrades has been the best hitter for the Maroon and Gold in nearly every hitting statistic this season. But after suffering an apparent hamstring injury in Sunday’s 29-4 win over LMU, he’s missed the past two games.
And although they didn’t need him against Arizona, his impact against the No. 17 team in college baseball surely would’ve been used if he were healthy.
“Nu’u’s the captain on the team,” junior outfielder PJ Moutzouridis said. “It sucks for him being out because of how much of the impact his play (has) on the game, but when we got guys like Beckett and everybody else who played those positions, we got good depth on this team.”
Moutzouridis hit his first home run of the season in the first inning, sending a fly ball that just barely cleared the “Big 12” logo by ASU’s bullpen.
He nearly hit another run in the eighth inning, driving one to left, but it was caught on the warning track, as he came up just a few feet short of a multi-homer game.
Junior infielder Garrett Michel was also one of the few Sun Devils to help generate some offense on Friday. The Virginia Tech transfer came in as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the seventh and hit a ground ball that chopped into right field for a then-game-tying single.
Michel looked at his dugout, and celebrated, fired up as he ran toward first, as he displayed his excitement to play in front of a rowdy crowd.
“I’ve never played in front of a crowd like this,” Michel said. “It’s awesome. It gets us going. It definitely fires us up and we love when they’re engaged.”
ASU will go at it again with the Horned Frogs on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. MST. Despite what was a heartbreaking loss, it was a good sign that Sparky kept it close with the highest-ranked team in the Big 12 conference.
But next time? ASU has to finish, or it’ll never reach the goals the team sets for itself.
“We lost, so that doesn’t really do anything other than we got to figure out ways to win those games,” Bloomquist said.
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