ASU baseball coach Pat Murphy's assessment that he doesn't have a true starting pitcher on his team rang true this weekend, as none of the three starters for the No. 16 Sun Devils lasted past the fourth inning at last weekend's fourth-annual Coca-Cola Classic in Surprise.
The pitching staff hit a low on Saturday against No. 6 Oregon State (2-1), when eight ASU pitchers combined to walk 15 batters, tying a school record in an 11-0 loss.
"To walk 15 in a game, that's unusual," Murphy said. "You're not going to win many games walking 15."
ASU (5-4) junior starter Pat Bresnehan got his first loss of the season, giving up five runs in 3 1/3 innings.
Meanwhile, Oregon State starter Jonah Nickerson pitched five shutout innings, and Joe Paterson and Brian Budrow followed up with four shutout innings of their own. It was the third consecutive season the Sun Devils have been held scoreless in a Coca-Cola Classic game, including their 2004 contest with Oklahoma, which ended ASU's NCAA record streak of 506 consecutive games with at least one run.
"We've scuffled two games in a row against good pitching," Murphy said, referring to ASU's Friday afternoon loss to Gonzaga (6-1).
"Nickerson and [Gonzaga starter Patrick] Donovan both beat us last year and we couldn't mount anything against them. Now we're pretending we're the College World Series team instead of the '06 team."
Murphy was ejected from the game in the top of the fifth inning by home plate umpire Steve Corvi for arguing balls and strikes.
Murphy then went out and confronted the fourth-year umpire with a tirade that would make Lou Pinella proud.
"Umpires don't cause you to lose, but you get a little frustrated when things aren't going your way," Murphy said.
Murphy was suspended by Corvi for the following contest against Nevada because he didn't leave the field in a timely manner.
"There's no reason to be suspended," Murphy said. "That's just an inexperienced umpire making a rash judgment."
Assistant coach Jay Sferra took the helm after the ejection for the remainder of the Oregon State game and the Nevada game, where ASU fell to the winless Wolf Pack 12-8.
Freshman starter Drew Bowman lasted only 1 1/3 innings and gave up three runs before senior Brett Bordes came in relief.
In the bottom of the third, the Sun Devil offense came to life, starting the inning with six consecutive hits and scoring five runs to temporarily give the Devils a 5-3 lead.
But Nevada (1-5) scored six runs in the fifth to take the lead for good.
In Friday's game with Gonzaga, a seven-run third inning propelled the Bulldogs to a victory.
Reach the reporter at thomas.j.kelley@asu.edu.
