Arizona State blows ninth-inning lead in 6-4 loss to Oregon

Arizona State baseball looked comfortable for most of the night. The Sun Devils took the lead in the third inning and the bullpen had been nearly flawless, until the ninth inning.

ASU had a one-run lead heading into the ninth, but the Ducks would double their run total from the night and spoil ASU’s chance to take the first two games of the series.

“Guys made a couple good swings, you know, and they beat us,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “That’s the beauty of baseball but it’s also the heartbreak of baseball at the same time.”

Arizona State blows the lead against Oregon

ASU’s freshman closer Cole Carlon struggled Saturday night. He induced a groundout to the leadoff batter, but the next batter sent a double down the left-field line. A passed ball allowed that runner to advance to third with one out as the tying run.

The very next pitch put the Ducks on top. Oregon’s junior outfielder Jeffrey Heard hit a 2-run home run that gave the Ducks a 5-4 lead. The next batter would get on with a hard-hit single and advance to third on two stolen bases and later score, ending Carlon’s night.

“These kids aren’t going to be perfect. Cole’s been great in that situation so far,” Bloomquist said. “Tonight, we had the guy we wanted come in there in the ninth and everything matched up exactly how we wanted it to and like I said, they got us tonight. It sucks.”

Bullpen continues to be a problem for ASU

The bullpen has been an area of talk often early this season. It struggled mightily to start the season but had made vast improvements lately. Saturday night saw both sides of that. The bullpen pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings but blew the game in the ninth.

“I think guys are starting to find their roles and us as coaches are starting to learn what situations to put guys in to give them the opportunity to be successful,” Bloomquist said. “We’re clearly not perfect yet, but we’re starting to kind of find our way on who’s going to fit in where.”

Freshman pitcher Adam Behrens started the game for ASU and threw 4.1 innings allowing three earned runs. Although his stat line doesn’t look great, he gave the offense a chance to grab the Sun Devils a lead and looked great through four innings. In the fifth inning, he started giving up harder contact and was pulled, but left the game with ASU on top.

This was Behrens’ second start of the season and he’s been a guy Bloomquist can rely on for multiple innings whenever he needs it. Behrens has gone at least four innings in each of his starts.

“He doesn’t care where he pitches. He just goes out and gets outs,” Bloomquist said. “I wish they all had the mentality that he has. You know, ‘Hey whatever you need coach, I’m game’, so he did his job and kept us in the game there.”

Offensive woes

The offense, on the other hand, struggled again Saturday night. For most of the night, it looked like the four runs would be enough, but that still is not the expectation from this explosive group.

ASU has less than 10 hits in each of its last three games. The Sun Devils had reached 10 hits in nine of their first 11 games prior.

“We’re not getting as many base runners as we were early on in the season,” Bloomquist said. “We were getting a lot of hits in bunches early on and a lot of baserunners everywhere creating havoc.”

The Sun Devils had eight hits, including three solo home runs, but were just 1-8 when hitting with runners in scoring position.

“We weren’t able to throw the knockout punch in there with guys on base,” Bloomquist said. “I’ll take the homers sure, but it’d be nice to get some more guys on base at the top of the order.”

ASU’s three solo shots came in the second and third innings when the Sun Devils scored their only runs of the night. They put up a pair of runs in each inning to take a 4-1 lead after three innings. Oregon added two runs in the fifth inning and then flipped the game on its head with three more runs in the ninth inning.

Ironically, ASU flipped the game similarly Friday night in the late innings. Oregon had a 4-3 lead after seven innings, and ASU put up a run in the eighth and ninth innings to steal the first game of the series.

Moving forward

“27-out dogfight,” Bloomquist said. “We got them late yesterday. They got us late today. We turn the page and get ready to go tomorrow and compete our guts out tomorrow.”

The rubber match of the series will be at 12:05 p.m. Sunday. Through the first two games, whoever had the lead after seven innings did not fare well. We’ll see if that changes Sunday.

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