An Oregon baserunner ducks underneath a throw from junior infielder Michael Benjamin to freshman Drew Stankiewicz. The ASU baseball loss the series finale to the Ducks Sunday. (Photo by Molly J. Smith)The No. 22 ASU baseball team continued its Sunday struggles, dropping the final game of its series against No. 11 Oregon 16-3.
The Sun Devils (19-9-1, 6-6 Pac-12) are now 0-4 on Sunday in conference play, which coach Tim Esmay says has been their “Achilles heel.”
“It’s obviously pretty frustrating for us and we are working hard to fix it,” Esmay said.
Junior starter Billy Young pitched for the third time in eight days and struggled, allowing seven hits and five runs in 2.1 innings.
Young (0-1) started in place of the struggling sophomore Adam McCreery, but Esmay said the Show Low product wasn’t the answer against the conference-leading Ducks (23-8, 9-3 Pac-12).
“We are just asking for these guys to go five and then we can kind of go from there,” Esmay said. “We didn’t get it again today.”
Sophomore shortstop Drew Stankiewicz was the offensive star for the Sun Devils, racking up a pair of extra base hits.
Outside of Stankiewicz's performance, Oregon starter Cole Irvin (6-1) shut down the Sun Devil offense. He allowed only six hits and three runs in seven innings.
“He threw well enough to the scoreboard, I thought,” Esmay said. “He pounded the zone, and we got ourselves out.”
Stankieiwicz efforts weren’t enough to combat the Ducks, which racked up 20 hits, including one from each of the starters.
Sophomore Darin Gillies pitched four innings and allowed three runs in his longest outing of the season.
Esmay said Gillies, who also recorded five strikeouts, was instrumental in keeping the Sun Devils within five runs at 8-3.
“He kept us in the ballgame,” Esmay said. “Until the eighth inning, we were still in the ballgame.”
The Ducks put the game away in the eighth, scoring eight runs off three Sun Devil pitchers to balloon the lead to 13.
Overall, the Ducks scored 17 runs in the eighth inning of the three-game series.
Although the Sun Devils won the series, Esmay said Sunday’s thrashing took its toll on his team.
"The first two days, I thought we played pretty well and did some really good things and today just leaves a sour taste in your mouth,” Esmay said.
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
