With three extra inning games under their belt in the past week, excuse the ASU baseball team for being a little tired for its Sunday mid-afternoon first pitch against UC Davis.
While Sundays around college baseball are usually the highest scoring and slowest-moving, the Sun Devils and Aggies moved quickly through the first few innings with very little offensive production.
Even after UC Davis took its first lead of the weekend in the fourth inning, the Sun Devils looked out of it, resigning many to thinking this just was not their day.
Then, in the top of the seventh inning, ASU got the motivation it needed. On a 3-1 pitch, redshirt sophomore left fielder Guillermo Salazar popped a ball up right above first base where junior David Greer settled under it to try to secure the first out of the inning.
Before the ball came down, however, Salazar steamrolled through Greer, allowing the ball to fall in fair territory. First base umpire Billy Speck was on the call immediately, signaling Salazar out, but not before both Greer and sophomore second baseman Andrew Snow ran over to get in the batter's face.
"Kids are kids and we can sit here on purpose saying he did it on purpose or he didn't, you've got to try to avoid that," Smith said. "The way we were kind of being lack of competitive at the plate, almost like sleeping at the plate today, you want to let the sleeping dog lie and that kind of woke us up."
Smith was still frustrated by the incident following the game and allowed that to show through when putting forth the worst-case scenario for the play.
"I hate seeing plays like that because there was no reason for that to happen," Smith said. "If we had lost David Greer on a play like that for the season, I would not have been happy. I wasn't happy anyway, but I might have... I don't know."
Despite going down quickly in the seventh, there was a renewed sense of urgency in the home dugout entering the eighth inning, but a combination of four pitchers put the Sun Devils behind the eight ball.
With men on first and second and one out, pinch-hitting senior outfielder Cameron Olson launched a one-strike pitch over the wall in left field for what was originally called a home run, which looked like a back-breaker for the scoreless Devils.
Smith immediately came out to argue the call as he and the rest of the team felt the ball had landed foul, causing an uproar from the 2,320 on hand at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
"Everybody – me, umpires, players, everybody, probably their coaching staff – admitted the ball landed to the left of the foul pole," Smith said. "Clearly to the left of the foul pole. You have seen home runs from time to time, and I've been on both sides of them, where it's a really high sky home run that it curls around the pole, but goes way over the fence and hits left. To me, then, it's physically possible to happen. But as little distance as that thing made over the wall, there's no way it could take a left angle like that and land where it did. I mean, it was five to six feet to that side. So that was all."
The three umpires conference in the middle of the diamond for a couple minutes before signaling foul ball and the teams quickly cycled back to their previous positions in one of the more calm overturned calls you'll ever see, something that did not go unnoticed.
"That's the way it's supposed to work," Smith said. "When guys collectively get together."
After escaping the inning with a run allowed, ASU's frustrations and energy bubbled over onto the scoreboard as junior shortstop Colby Woodmansee tied the game in the eighth inning and sophomore left fielder Ryan Lillard won it in the ninth, giving the Sun Devils a weekend sweep.
While UC Davis will venture back home licking their wounds and wondering what happened, the Sun Devils can celebrate their eighth win in a row and fourth decided in the ninth inning or later.
While Smith is happy the team is learning lessons from its own play, one big one can be taken from how the Aggies lost a game which they probably should have taken.
"When you've got somebody down, you just let them be down," Smith quipped. "You don't give them any reason to get charged up."
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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