Monday games in college baseball are an anomaly.
But what transpired at Packard Stadium made the already unusual matchup between the ASU baseball team and BYU even more memorable.
Despite leading by a run, the No. 8 Sun Devils (32-10, 13-5 Pac-10) were six outs away from being no-hit, but rallied behind a two-run homer from freshman Michael Benjamin, starting for the first time in his ASU career, and seven scoreless innings from junior transfer Kyle Ottoson to defeat the Cougars (20-21, 7-9 Mountain West) 3-0 in just an hour and 48 minutes.
“Guys have stepped up when we needed them to,” ASU coach Tim Esmay said. “Benjamin got the opportunity and he took advantage of it and then you have Ottoson pitch one his best games. I’m excited for both of them.”
However, the Sun Devils were stagnant early on Monday.
ASU junior outfielder Johnny Ruettiger walked to lead off the bottom of the first then advanced to second on a groundout from junior second baseman Zack MacPhee.
After sophomore designated hitter Joey DeMichele and junior first baseman Zach Wilson failed to drive Ruettiger home, BYU starting pitcher Matthew Neil retired the Sun Devils in order the following four innings.
In the sixth frame, Benjamin, starting in place of injured junior Deven Marrero, hit a soft grounder to Neil, but the Cougar pitcher threw the ball away, allowing Benjamin to advance to second base.
The next at-bat, Ruettiger grounded out to first base, advancing Benjamin to third.
Neil threw a wild pitch to MacPhee three pitches later, scoring Benjamin and giving ASU a 1-0 lead despite not recording a hit.
“That was pretty cool, we just had to bank on the other team’s mistakes,” Benjamin said. “We knew we didn’t have a hit and we were talking about it in the dugout.”
The Sun Devils finally got the zero off the board in the seventh with a DeMichele double to left field.
Because BYU was trailing, Neil was just six outs away from completing an eight-inning no-hitter.
Ottoson (3-0) gave way to ASU junior closer Mitchell Lambson in the eighth inning after giving up just three hits and striking out seven.
“I felt like I had good command of my fastball and I established the inner half of the plate to back them off a little bit,” Ottoson said. “Tonight was easy to stay in rhythm because of the pace of the game too.”
In the Sun Devil half of the eighth, Benjamin connected on a pitch from BYU sophomore reliever Taylor Cole for a two-run home run to left field.
“The second pitch he hung a curve ball and I stayed on it and got all of it,” Benjamin said. “I just tried to go up there and relax.”
As he rounded third base, Benjamin shook the hand of ASU assistant coach Mike Benjamin Sr., Michael’s dad.
The long ball gave Benjamin his first hit, home run, RBI and run scored of his Sun Devil career.
“The guys were all over me in the dugout,” he said. “Just watching all the players come through here and having my first hit as a home run makes it special.”
The last ASU player to hit a home run as his first career hit was Abe Ruiz in 2009, which was a grand slam.
Lambson closed out the Cougars in the ninth with three consecutive outs.
The two teams will meet again Tuesday night at Packard Stadium.
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu
