After starting their season 3-0, the Sun Devils took an 18-4 blowout loss on Tuesday after much of their pitching staff was knocked around by Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys (2-2) collected 22 hits against nine Sun Devil pitchers, but ASU’s (3-1) pitching staff and defense didn’t do themselves any favors: The team combined for two errors, a passed ball, a balk, five wild pitches and a hit batter.
Four of OSU’s 18 runs were unearned.
“I was … disappointed with the lack of maturity on the mound where nobody was going out and pitching with a purpose to shut it off,” said head coach Tracy Smith. “You don’t pitch to the score, you’re pitching to compete. The results were terrible, but more importantly to me was the lack of competitiveness on the mound.”
Starting9️⃣@gagecanning@JeremyMcCuin
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) February 21, 2017
CarterAldrete@lin_lyle
RyanLillard@ZwadsTheDevil@Sam__Ferri@T_Lane17@HunterBishop9
⚾️@zachdix3 pic.twitter.com/OYgXuxLSpt
The Sun Devils got in a hole early when two pitchers — sophomore lefties Zach Dixon (the starter) and Garvin Alston — combined to allow three runs (two unearned) on four walks, three hits, four wild pitches and a hit batter, all in just 3 1/3 innings.
Later, OSU tacked on more with a three-run sixth inning, a five-run seventh, a two-run eighth and a five-run ninth.
“Guys need to see that an opportunity, regardless of the score, is an opportunity to compete your rear end off," Smith said. "And we didn’t do that today at all.”
The ASU pitching staff’s day began smoothly, as Dixon retired seven of the first eight hitters he faced. But a third inning fraught with walks, a wild pitch and a hit batter seemed to derail Dixon’s outing.
Dixon came back out for the fourth inning and allowed a leadoff triple to OSU junior outfielder Jon Littell, followed by an RBI single, two wild pitches and a walk.
Smith had seen enough.
“You’ve got to execute pitches,” Smith said. “They’re a good hitting team. Part of a failed result is not doing what you’re supposed to be doing from an execution standpoint. The reason Zach had great success early in that game was he was throwing multiple pitches for a strike in the zone. And when the wheels fell off, he was nowhere near the zone.”
Batting practice views. pic.twitter.com/Z8oampT7BT
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) February 21, 2017
Alston entered the game to relieve Dixon but faced just two hitters, allowing a walk and tossing a wild pitch.
After Dixon and Alson, Smith used pitchers Grant Schneider, Connor Higgins, Tanner West, Chris Isbell, Alec Marsh, Chaz Montoya and Jake Godfrey. West and Marsh made their NCAA debuts.
Only three pitchers — Alston, Marsh and Godfrey — were not charged with a run.
Isbell retired the first two hitters he faced before allowing back-to-back hits, but left the game suddenly with an apparent injury.
“(Isbell) has been battling a back injury for a little over a week now,” Smith said. “It just locked up on him again. I don’t fault him. He’s a competitive guy, he wants the baseball. Hopefully we’ll get him back. He had a little spasm today but he’s been battling that all week. This isn’t the first time; we’ve had to pull him out of intrasquads for the same thing.”
Ironically, though the game ended in a blowout loss for the Sun Devils — their offense did something it hadn’t done in its three games against Northwestern: hit a home run.
In fact, ASU went deep twice — once off the bat of sophomore outfielder Tyler Williams and again when freshman second baseman Carter Aldrete hit the first dinger of his NCAA career.
The Sun Devils would go on to plate two more runs with a two-RBI single by sophomore shortstop Jeremy McCuin in the ninth. Immediately after his hit, McCuin exited the game.
“It looks like a little quad issue there, but we’ll know more tomorrow,” Smith said.
To make matters worse, Smith also announced Tuesday that freshman pitcher Zane Strand, who exited Sunday’s game with an elbow injury, will be out for the year.
ASU baseball will return to action on Friday, Feb. 24, at Texas Christian University.
Reach the reporter at matthew.layman@asu.edu or follow @Mattjlayman on Twitter.
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