Unable to cool the hot bats of Washington State or take advantage of opportunities at the plate, the No. 1 ASU baseball team dropped its first series of the season after falling to the Cougars 9-5 on Sunday in chilly Pullman, Wash.
Sophomore Jake Borup continued a trend of rough starts, spotting WSU four runs in the first inning after sophomore Zack MacPhee had given the Sun Devils a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with a solo home run, his sixth of the season and third in as many games.
Unlike previous outings in which Borup was able to rise out of the early doldrums to pitch effectively, the right-hander ran into trouble again in the third inning before being lifted for sophomore reliever Mitchell Lambson.
The Sun Devils drew to within one run in the fourth when a single by senior Raoul Torrez plated a pair of runs. But with two outs, sophomore Drew Maggi struck out and MacPhee grounded out, stranding a pair of key runs for ASU (28-3, 6-3 Pac-10).
But the Cougars (17-11, 3-3), who earned their first-ever series win over the Sun Devils with Sunday’s victory, scored three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull away.
The Sun Devils scored a run in the top of ninth on an RBI single by senior Kole Calhoun, who recorded a season-high four hits, but were unable to pull closer.
ASU outhit the Cougars 14-9 on Sunday but left nine runners on base. The Sun Devils also allowed extra base runners by hitting six batters in the game, three by Borup in his 2 1/3 innings of work.
The Sun Devils struggled all series with runners in scoring position, stranding 14, part of 21 total left on base in the three-game set.
Even in ASU’s win on Saturday, an 11-7 victory, the team failed to convert a number of scoring opportunities.
WSU pitcher Travis Cook walked the first three batters he faced in that contest and then hit sophomore Riccio Torrez with a pitch to force a run in. But after sophomore Zach Wilson grounded into a double play to score MacPhee, ASU did not score again in the inning, a microcosm for offensive results in the series.
A big sixth inning that saw the Sun Devils notch six runs, keyed by a home run by MacPhee and RBI hits by Calhoun, Riccio Torrez, Wilson and sophomore Johnny Ruettiger, gave ASU a 10-1 lead.
Freshman Alex Blackford, who pitched three effective innings of relief against San Diego on Tuesday, ran into trouble on Saturday, allowing three Cougar runs to cross in the ninth before freshman Jake Barrett recorded the final out to earn his second save of the season.
On Friday, WSU used a game-winning pinch hit by Matt Argyropoulos in the bottom of the ninth off of sophomore Jordan Swagerty to claim victory in the opener.
ASU returns home this week to take on USC in a three-game series that begins Friday at Packard Stadium.
Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu
