When ASU baseball junior starter Zak Miller left the game after the fifth inning, he had carried his team to a 7-2 lead over archrival Arizona on the road.
Miller was in line for his third victory of the season, but the No. 9 Sun Devils (22-11-1) couldn’t give it to him.
ASU gave up eight runs in the final three innings to the Wildcats (24-12) to fall 10-9.
The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead courtesy of a sacrifice fly from junior third baseman Brandon Dixon.
It was the Sun Devils who struck back in the second, though, scoring two off Wildcat senior starter Nick Cunningham to grab a one-run advantage.
The Sun Devils chased after Cunningham and four straight batters reached in the third as freshman outfielder Johnny Sewald capped off a four-run inning with an RBI single.
The Wildcats hit another sacrifice fly off Miller in the bottom the inning, but it was the Sun Devils who responded again in the next inning with an RBI single from redshirt sophomore outfielder Trever Allen.
Miller cruised through the fourth and fifth innings and the Sun Devils took a 7-2 lead into the sixth.
Allen added a sacrifice fly in the inning as sophomore pitcher Adam McCreery took over for Miller, making his first appearance since being removed of the starting rotation.
McCreery struggled.
He faced only three batters, surrendered two walks and a single before being pulled in favor of redshirt sophomore Mark Lambson.
Lambson couldn’t hold the Wildcats and allowed all three of McCreery’s runners. The final two scored off a throwing error from junior second baseman James McDonald, to score bring the game within 8-6.
The Sun Devils added an insurance run in the seventh, but couldn’t hold down the Wildcat rally.
After Lambson loaded the bases with one out, senior pitcher Matt Dunbar was brought in. Dunbar allowed a sacrifice fly then an RBI single to sophomore utility man Joseph Maggi.
The Sun Devils had Maggi caught between first and second after his single, but couldn’t tag him or throw out the other Wildcat runner who broke home during the rundown.
The mental error gave the Wildcats another run and shrunk the Sun Devil lead down to 9-8, the closest the home team had been since the second inning.
The Sun Devils couldn’t muster anything in the top of the eighth as sophomore pitcher Darin Gillies replaced Dunbar.
The Wildcats got a leadoff single from Dixon and a sacrifice moved him to second.
Dixon then stole third and freshman catcher R.J. Ybarra threw away the attempted pickoff for the fifth Sun Devil error of the night, allowing Dixon to score and tie the game.
Three batters later, freshman Scott Kingery drove in the game-winning run off Gillies, lining a double over junior Kasey Coffman’s head in left with a man on first to seal the Wildcat victory.
The win was the third for the Wildcats in the past four meetings with their upstate rivals.
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu or follow on Twitter @Danny__Shapiro
