ASU baseball fell 17-4 against University of California Los Angeles at Phoenix Municipal Stadium Sunday afternoon.
This loss dropped the Sun Devils to 12-14 on the season with a 2-7 Pac-12 record. It was also the Sun Devils' third straight Pac-12 series loss. UCLA, on the other hand, moved to 13-12 on the season, 6-3 in the Pac-12.
While ASU surrendered runs throughout the game, a porous first inning quickly spelled defeat.
In the first inning, redshirt sophomore starting pitcher Reagan Todd began his outing by giving up five runs, and six total in his 1 1/3 innings pitched.
Junior pitcher Ryan Hingst followed with three earned runs off three hits and two walks in 1 2/3 innings. The trend continued when freshman pitcher Alec Marsh allowed five earned runs in his 1 2/3 innings of action.
When their combined 4 2/3 innings of work were over, UCLA had 14 runs on the board, and the game was far out of reach.
Head coach Tracy Smith knew his players were making an effort, but said not everything was up to par.
"Everybody's trying, but at some point trying's not good enough, you've got to execute. I thought we did a really poor job," Smith said.
Smith said he thought his team started the game with the wrong frame of mind, and that Saturday's comeback win didn't help matters.
"What we have to guard against, and it was a little evident in pregame, is we had a good win last night, guys feeling pretty good about themselves," Smith said. "But that's the part where we show a little bit of our immaturity or whatever you want to say, because when I watched the infield I could tell right then."
ASU managed some offense, mostly in the form of the long ball. Junior outfielder Andrew Shaps hit a home run in the first inning and senior catcher Zach Cerbo blasted one in the sixth, but neither had any impact on the outcome of the game.
B1 | You can kiss that one goodbye @ashaps08 sends one over the wall. 5-1 UCLA.@Pac12Networkhttps://t.co/smTHSfyiTm
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) April 2, 2017
The Sun Devils' next game is Tuesday at 7 p.m. MST when they travel to Tucson to play the UA Wildcats.
Reach the reporter at mpharri7@asu.edu or follow @Harris_Mark7 on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepressport on Twitter.
