At the start of the 2009 ASU baseball season, one would be hard-pressed to find anybody outside of the Sun Devil locker room who believed they would make the Final Four of College World Series.
ASU literally returned the least amount of players of any Division I program in a major conference, but the Sun Devils rode their stellar pitching staff and young talent back to Omaha for the third time in five seasons.
But the No. 5 Sun Devils’ run in the CWS ended in heartbreaking fashion on Friday night at Rosenblatt Stadium, as Texas beat ASU 4-3 on a pair of solo home runs by sophomore catcher Cameron Rupp and sophomore center fielder Connor Rowe in the bottom of the ninth inning.
It was the second time a week that the No. 1 Longhorns (49-14-1) came from behind to beat the Sun Devils (51-14), who finished tied for third place in the CWS after going 2-2 in Omaha.
“I’ve talked all week about this team being the least experienced in major college baseball,” ASU coach Pat Murphy said after the game. “This group did all the things you want kids to do. I’m as proud of this team as any team, maybe more, for how they’ve conducted themselves on and off the field.”
UT will face LSU in a best-of-three series starting Monday that will determine the national champion.
ASU got six innings of two-run ball out of junior right-hander Mike Leake, who pitched on two days rest, and took a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth inning when a two-out triple by freshman infielder Zach Wilson brought junior center fielder Jason Kipnis around to score.
But then freshman reliever Mitchell Lambson, who had retired the first seven batters he faced after entering the game in the seventh inning, gave up the two solo shots, including Rowe’s two-out game-winner to left field that sent the Longhorn faithful into a frenzy while the Sun Devils walked off the field in disbelief.
“[Lambson] has been good all year, and he was good again [Friday],” Murphy said. “The credit goes to Texas. They did a wonderful job of hitting in the clutch.”
ASU grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI single by junior left fielder Kole Calhoun and regained a 2-1 advantage in the fourth when freshman shortstop Drew Maggi singled up the middle to score freshman second baseman Zack MacPhee.
UT then tied the game 2-2 on an RBI single by senior second baseman Travis Tucker in the fifth inning, but neither team would score again until the ninth.
Friday’s loss to the Longhorns came just three days after UT had overcome a 6-0 deficit to beat ASU 10-6 on Tuesday night.
The Sun Devils scored three times in both the second and third innings, highlighted by home runs from Calhoun and junior catcher Carlos Ramirez, and seemed to be in prime position with the national wins leader in Leake on the mound.
But UT scored six runs in the fourth inning to tie the game. Rupp got the Longhorns on the board when he blasted a three-run homer to right field, then UT got four more singles in the frame to knot the game 6-6 and drive Leake out of the ballgame in the process.
“With Mike Leake on the mound and six-run lead, you’re feeling pretty good about things,” Murphy said. “But that just shows you how beautiful our game is and how beautiful college baseball is and how great this event is. The best team [Tuesday night] fought back and got in the game.”
Leake gave up eight hits in just 3 1/3 innings of work.
“[UT] put the bat on the ball and got some timely hits,” Murphy said.
“When Mike is walking people, and dropping a ball going to first, something isn’t right. [I’m] not sure exactly what happened, but his stuff wasn’t his normal sinking stuff.”
UT went on top for good in the seventh inning when Rupp hit a leadoff home run off of Lambson to make the score 7-6. The Longhorns then added three more runs in the eighth inning.
And when the UT offense got hot, the Sun Devil bats went ice cold.
ASU could not solve UT freshman reliever Taylor Jungmann, who earned the victory after shutting the Sun Devils out over 5 2/3 innings.
“He pounded the zone, [and] he kept a lot of guys off balance,” Calhoun said of Jungmann. “I know our offense hasn’t been the best [compared to other ASU teams] in the past, but that kid still pitched really well.”
That loss sent ASU into an elimination game against North Carolina, where the Sun Devils earned the right to face UT again by beating the Tar Heels 12-5 to send them home.
The Sun Devils’ offense was anemic again to start the game, as UNC took a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning.
Then the rally began.
ASU took advantage of an erratic Matt Harvey (sophomore) in the fifth inning. After Maggi reached on a fielder’s choice, Harvey hit Kipnis with a pitch and then walked Ramirez to load the bases.
That brought Calhoun to the plate, and UNC coach Mike Fox went to his bullpen and brought in junior Brian Moran to face the lefty batter.
It backfired.
Calhoun launched a 3-2 pitch over the wall in right-center field to tie the game 4-4 on the first grand slam of his career.
“I don’t know what to say,” Calhoun said after the game. “I just get up there and hit.”
It was Calhoun’s second home run off of Moran in the CWS. He hit a three-run bomb in the 10th inning in the Sun Devils’ 5-2 victory on June 14.
Calhoun then broke the tie in the seventh on a two-run double to right center to give the Sun Devils a 6-4 lead. ASU’s advantage would balloon to 12-4 later in the inning, as the Sun Devils batted around and got two-run singles from Maggi and MacPhee and an RBI single from Ramirez.
“It was just one of those innings,” Fox said. “We couldn’t find the strike zone. We dodged bullets during the first few innings but couldn’t recover in the seventh.”
On the mound, junior left-hander Josh Spence allowed four runs (three earned) in seven innings and notched his second win against UNC in less than a week.
Calhoun finished his CWS with one of the greatest performances in recent memory, with nine hits in 16 at-bats (.563 average), three home runs and 11 runs batted in.
Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu
