The No. 8 ASU baseball avenged its road loss earlier in the season to rival UA Tuesday night, knocking off the Wildcats (28-15, 9-9 Pac--12) 7-5 for their fifth consecutive victory.
After giving up eight runs in the final three innings two weeks ago in Tucson, the Sun Devils (29-12-1, 11-7 Pac-12) didn’t start off Tuesday’s game against UA any better.
Redshirt junior starter Zak Miller struggled in the first, giving up three runs and throwing 10 straight balls at one point.
ASU coach Tim Esmay said the beginning of the game felt very familiar to the last time these teams matched up.
“It was like Déjà vu in the first inning, but to our credit, we moved forward,” Esmay said.
Like Esmay said, the Sun Devils moved forward quickly.
Freshman R.J. Ybarra doubled down the left field line to start the second and scored two batters later after a sacrifice fly from fellow freshman Dalton DiNatale.
The bats came to life once again in the third as sophomore outfielder Jake Peevyhouse led off the inning with a homerun, his second of the season.
“You can’t do that here,” Esmay said. “The wind was blowing in. That was a nice, easy swing by him. That was huge for him and huge for us.”
Peevyhouse’s leadoff homerun sparked a three-run inning for the Sun Devils. They gained the lead for the first time all game at 4-3.
The Wildcats struck back in the fifth off Miller as sophomore catcher Riley Moore’s two-out single gave the Wildcats a 5-4 advantage.
Miller’s day was done after five and Esmay said his performance was crucial, especially after the shaky first inning.
“Miller did a really good job of hanging in there,” Esmay said. “We really needed him to go 80 pitches, five innings because we had a pretty good plan in place and stayed with it today.”
Sophomore catcher Nate Causey tripled to lead off the sixth and scored two batters later on a single from junior outfielder Kasey Coffman.
Esmay’s bullpen plan then kicked into motion, starting with sophomore Adam McCreery in the sixth.
The hard-throwing lefty’s struggles have been documented all year, but pitched a scoreless inning highlighted by an inning-ending strikeout against junior centerfielder Johnny Field, who Esmay calls the “Pac-12’s best hitter”.
The Sun Devil offense took control in the eighth off the Wildcat bullpen and sophomore closer Mathew Troupe.
Troupe entered the game with two on and two outs and Ybarra singled on the first pitch he saw then the closer threw eight straight balls to allow two Sun Devils runners to score and give them a 7-5 lead.
Junior reliever Josh McAlister, in only his seventh appearance of the season, threw a scoreless eighth then freshman closer Ryan Burr sealed it in the ninth for 10th save of the season.
Burr said beating the in-state rival for the first time in his career was special.
“It feels great,” Burr said. “When you come in here, the atmosphere is great, their fans are great. Kind of chippy at times, but that just fires us up even more honestly. Beating UA for the first time was crazy. I loved it and hopefully we will get a few more wins against them this year.”
With the victory, the Sun Devils moved to 10-7 all-time against the Wildcats under Esmay. He said the win meant a little more to his players.
“This isn’t your traditional midweek game,” Esmay said. “This is the defending national champs, your rival. All those things are in place. Right now to have a split with them and now to have an opportunity in a couple of weeks to play them at our place, yeah it’s always a big win. We are going to have a happier bus ride home tonight.”
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Danny__Shapiro
