The ASU baseball team secured a series victory over the weekend at the University of Washington, winning on Friday and Saturday and losing on Sunday afternoon.
Their record on the season sits at 18-9 and 7-5 in Pac-12 conference play.
Friday
The Sun Devils narrowly defeated the Huskies by a score of 3-2 in a game that lasted a whopping 16-innings.
ASU scored once in both the top of the second and third innings to push ahead to an early advantage. Freshman infielder Hunter Haas had an RBI single in the second and freshman infielder Sean McLain flew out on a sac fly to advance redshirt senior catcher Nick Cheema in the third, giving ASU a two-run lead.
Washington's only two runs of the game came both in the bottom of the seventh inning; a single which sent two runners home to tie the game.
The Sun Devils relied on seven pitchers throughout the duration of the game. Redshirt sophomore Tyler Thornton went the first six innings, allowing just three hits on 98 pitches. He was followed by redshirt junior Brady Corrigan, redshirt freshman Graham Osman, redshirt freshman Cam Dennie, redshirt sophomore Will Levine, freshman Jared Glenn, who was credited with the win, and redshirt freshman Christian Bodlovich, who was credited with the save.
ASU's game-winning play came in the top of the 16th inning, where a throwing error by Washington's third baseman on a grounder from redshirt senior catcher Sam Ferri allowed for freshman infielder Jack Moss to score the go-ahead run.
Saturday
Contrary to Friday's mammoth extra-innings festival, ASU dominated the second game of the series on Saturday evening to secure a series victory, winning by a score of 8-1 at Husky Ballpark.
The Huskies were first to get on the scoreboard, though, with a run on a sac fly in the bottom of the second. Washington would be held off the scoreboard for the remainder of the night.
ASU's slugfest began in the top of the fourth, where it scored six runs in the inning. Jack Moss kicked it off with a two-run home run, which was succeeded by a three-run double from redshirt junior infielder Drew Swift later in the inning. Swift's double scored redshirt freshman outfielder Seth Nager, redshirt freshman outfielder Kai Murphy, and redshirt freshman outfielder Joe Lampe.
Hunter Haas doubled following Swift's at-bat, which allowed swift to score and round out the inning for the Sun Devils.
Murphy flew out in the fifth with one out to let Ethan Long score and increase the lead to 7-1. Murphy then doubled in the eighth to earn another RBI, bringing the final score to 8-1.
ASU pitcher Justin Fall picked up his fifth win of the season with seven strikeouts on 28 batters faced on 100 pitches.
Bodlovich followed suit with a strikeout and allowed one hit over the next two innings, and freshman pitcher Brock Peery pitched the final inning of the game with one strikeout and no hits allowed.
Sunday
Sunday's matinee began looking a lot less favorable for the Sun Devils than the prior two games of the series had.
The Huskies had a strong showing at the plate in the third inning, scoring four runs to kick off the game's scoring. Following the fourth run, ASU replaced freshman Joe Hauser with freshman pitcher Brock Peery.
Peery retired the following two batters to end the inning.
Both teams added runs in the fifth inning. Swift launched a two-run home run for the Sun Devils, while the Huskies tacked on three of their own on four hits in the inning, all of them singles.
The following inning also featured high scoring from both teams. ASU's lineup produced two more home runs at the plate from Jack Moss and Murphy. Moss' bomb was a solo home run, while Murphy's brought in three RBIs.
Washington, on the other hand, kept pace with ASU's scoring. Two doubles and a triple from the Huskies' lineup resulted in a three-run stint that kept them in a comfortable 10-6 lead.
A sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the seventh and a wild pitch and single in the eighth increased Washington's lead to 13-6.
ASU travels to Las Vegas to play one game against UNLV on Tuesday and returns home after that for a three-game series against Stanford that begins on Friday.
Reach the reporter at aklatsky@asu.edu and follow @averyklatsky on Twitter.
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