Sophomore righthanded pitcher Darin Gillies releases a pitch at a home game against California on April 13. Gillies improved his record to 3-4 during ASU's final regular season game against Washington State on May 25. (Photo by Mario Mendez)ASU continued its strong play against Pac-12 opponents with a 6-3 road victory over Washington State to end the regular season. The Sun Devils are winners of eight of their 10 Pac-12 series and are 19-11 overall against conference foes.
Junior catcher Nate Causey and junior left fielder Jake Peevyhouse led the Sun Devils. Causey batted 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Peevyhouse batted 3-for-3 and scored two runs. ASU was also helped by sophomore center fielder Johnny Sewald, who had a two-RBI single in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Starting on the mound for ASU was junior Darin Gillies, who improved his record to 3-4 on five innings of work in which he recorded five strikeouts. Gillies also gave up seven hits and three runs but was the only Sun Devil pitcher to give up a hit or a run. Freshman Eder Erives and sophomores Jordan Aboites and Ryan Burr each pitched at least an inning and did not give up any hits to the combined 14 batters they faced.
Burr's save was his 12th of the season.
ASU jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning with a Causey RBI single that drove Peevyhouse home. Washington State tied it up in the bottom of the second and that score stood until the top of the fourth inning. In that frame, three different Sun Devils hit RBI singles en route to four runs. ASU would give up two runs in the fifth inning but shut out the Cougars the rest of the game.
Errors were a problem for Washington State, as it committed three in the game compared to just one by ASU. The Sun Devils also had more hits than the Cougars, striking the ball 10 times while Washington State finished with seven.
The loss goes to junior Tanner Chleborad, who is 4-7 on the season. Junior left fielder Yale Rosen batted 2-for-3 on the day with a two-RBI home run in the fifth inning and two runs scored. Washington State finishes the season with a record of 24-30.
ASU ended the regular season on a roll, having won nine of its last ten games. In that span, the Sun Devils scored an average of 8.5 runs while only giving up an average of 4.8 runs With NCAA tournament pairings beginning May 26, the Sun Devils will be a tough test for whichever team is matched up against them.
The Sun Devils have been included in the NCAA Tournament every year since 2000, with the exception of 2012 because of multiple NCAA violations that ruled them ineligible.
Reach the reporter at hkossodo@asu.edu or on Twitter @HKossodo
