After just one inning of play in its series against Long Beach State this weekend, things weren’t looking good for Sun Devil baseball.
ASU junior left-hander Eli Lingos took the mound at Phoenix Municipal Stadium Friday night and gave up five runs in the top of the first inning. But it didn’t seem to bother the Sun Devils, who battled back and sent the game into the tenth inning before winning on a walk-off.
Comebacks were the theme of the weekend for ASU.
“When things like that start to maybe make a turn for the worse, there’s two choices: You can either feed into all the negativity and all the noise that’s going on around you, or you can circle the wagons a little bit and pull yourself in and tighten your ranks from within,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “I would say the latter happened.”
ASU came back from a deficit and won in all three games they played against the Dirtbags, despite struggles with starting pitching.
The bats came alive and the bullpen executed its pitches. Thus, the Sun Devils will carry a three game win streak into its Pac-12 opener against Oregon State on Thursday.
Sun Devils Win 7-6 in Extras
Lingos’s five-run first inning was thanks to a series of hits, but he only gave up one walk in his six-inning, 13-hit, 106-pitch outing that resulted in a no-decision. The game looked bleak when the Dirtbags led the Sun Devils 6-2 after six innings.
But ASU tacked on a run in the seventh and another in the eighth to make it a 6-4 ballgame in the ninth. When two Sun Devils struck out, LBSU was an out away from a win in the series-opener.
Then, sophomore outfielder Gage Canning singled and junior outfielder Andrew Shaps homered to tie the game.
Easy as that.
The game went into extra innings, and the Sun Devils played small ball to force a play at the plate in the 10th. A throwing error by LBSU second baseman Jarren Duran allowed ASU junior outfielder Ryan Lillard to score the winning run.
The Sun Devils came back to win in walk-off fashion, 7-6.
DEVILS WIN, DEVILS WIN!!! @Sam__Ferri puts the ball in play and Lillard scores to power ASU over Long Beach State in extras! pic.twitter.com/nK11rXAm15
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) March 11, 2017
Sun Devils Win Series in 9-4 Victory
Though Saturday’s game didn’t feature a dramatic comeback and extra-inning walk-off, the Sun Devils were in the hole early due to pitching and climbed their way out of it.
Freshman pitcher Spencer Van Scoyoc, making the fourth start of his NCAA career (and entering the game with a 1.35 ERA), struggled to find the strike zone early. He walk two in the first, allowed two runs, and walked a batter and hit a batter in the second.
Van Scoyoc settled back in, pitched out of trouble and got on with his day. He went 4 2/3 innings with two earned runs, four walks and one strikeout – throwing 92 pitches.
The ASU bats put four runs on the board in the first four innings, but sophomore lefty Reagan Todd allowed two runs to the Dirtbags in the seventh to tie the game. Nonetheless, Todd earned the win as ASU plated the deciding run in the seventh and four more insurance runs in the eighth.
ASU defeated Long Beach State 9-4 to win the series.
In the win, junior righty Jake Godfrey pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. One of those outs came when he closed out the eighth inning in a 5-4 game with runners on second and third.
“Jake Godfrey coming in in a big situation in the eighth, with a runner on, one-run game, big pitch, he gets out of it,” Smith said. “But when we jumped up five, that doesn’t change anything. You still execute your pitches, and that’s what you look at. If you do that stuff consistently over time, you’re going to have a good chance to win baseball games.”
His clutch pitching carried over to the ninth, where Godfrey shut the door and sealed the victory.
Third Inning Tear Propels Sun Devils to 8-5 Win
After throwing six pitches and recording an out in Saturday’s game, junior righty Ryan Hingst took the bump once again on Sunday – this time as the starting pitcher.
Smith said Hingst wouldn’t necessarily be limited in his Sunday start because of his outing the day before, but ceded that the start would be non-traditional. He added that he wanted Hingst to just give the team whatever he could.
Two innings was all Smith and the Sun Devils would get out of Hingst, who pitched into the third inning but failed to get an out in that frame and exited with two runners on base. Hingst allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits and two walks.
Once again, ASU came back.
A five-run third inning for Sun Devil bats chased LBSU starting pitcher John Castro from the game. Later, junior left fielder Ryan Lillard hit a mammoth home run to centerfield.
ASU hitters’ eventual nine hits in the game belonged to eight different hitters – a team effort.
“I think we’ve got pretty good hitters all through the lineup,” Smith said. “You’ve got to work, as witnessed by Ryan Lillard sitting in the eight hole and hitting a ball 415 feet. It’s not an accident. We’ve got good hitters.”
ASU won 8-5.
Part of ASU’s offensive production came from freshmen Lyle Lin, Hunter Bishop and Carter Aldrete – all brand new players who are already having an immediate impact in the heart of the lineup.
“Those three, along with a lot of the other freshmen, they came in and they know their stuff. They’re talented kids,” said senior catcher Zach Cerbo. “It hasn’t been so much of a learning curve as people may think. They came in here ready to play. As you can see, they’re succeeding at what they’re doing.”
Godfrey made another appearance, stymieing the Dirtbag bats in 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief with just one hit allowed.
Later on, sophomore lefty Connor Higgins secured big strikeouts to end the eighth and ninth innings. In both instances, he was visibly excited on the mound, pumping his fist as the crowd cheered.
“I am an emotional player,” Higgins said. “But we’ve been going through a lot this weekend. We have been struggling. We came into the weekend with four (straight) losses, and to get that sweep over a good Long Beach team was huge. All that emotion just came out in the ninth inning, I guess.”
Reach the reporter at matthew.layman@asu.edu or follow @Mattjlayman on Twitter.
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