It's been a rough 24 hours for ASU baseball.
After believing they were one win away from hosting a regional entering Saturday, No. 12 ASU dropped its game Saturday and fell 6-3 to No. 17 USC Sunday after redshirt junior left fielder Bobby Stahel's three-run home run in the fifth inning.
The Sun Devils (34-21, 18-12 Pac-12) saw a back-and-forth game slip away from them in the middle innings for the second consecutive night against the Trojans (37-19, 18-12 Pac-12), who found picked up a key three-RBI hit yet again.
Both ASU and USC failed to secure a No. 1 seed as hosts in regionals, which were announced by the NCAA on Sunday. Both finished tied for fourth place in the Pac-12 after the regular season.
ASU has now lost three of its last four series against opponents from the Pac-12.
ASU head coach Tracy Smith made another adjustment in the lineup before Sunday, moving sophomore shortstop Colby Woodmansee back to hit old No. 3 hole, sophomore third baseman David Greer into the cleanup spot and redshirt senior right fielder Trever Allen into the No. 5 spot.
It worked, at least early on.
ASU opened the scoring in the second inning, as Allen and senior first baseman Joey Bielek got back-to-back one-out hits. Both advanced on a wild pitch, and Allen was driven home by a sacrifice fly from junior catcher RJ Ybarra to give ASU the 1-0 lead.
The Sun Devils tacked on another run in the third, as sophomore catcher Zach Cerbo and freshman second baseman Andrew Snow hit a pair of single to open the inning. Junior center fielder Johnny Sewald drove home Cerbo with a sacrifice fly, making it 2-0.
USC freshman starter Mitch Hart lasted just three innings for the Trojans, giving up the two runs on four hits while walking one and striking out none on 56 pitches.
The Trojans chipped into the lead in the fourth, getting a pair of singles and advancing to have two runners in scoring position off of ASU starter Seth Martinez's balk. Senior second baseman Dante Flores, who was the hero for USC Saturday, drove in sophomore first baseman Jeremy Martinez with an RBI groundout to make it 2-1 ASU.
USC took its first lead of the game in the fifth inning, as redshirt junior left fielder Bobby Stahel hit a three-run home run to left field off of Martinez to make it 4-2 in favor of the Trojans.
They wouldn't give up the lead.
ASU chipped into the newfound deficit in the next half-inning, as Allen drove home senior left fielder Jake Peevyhouse on a RBI single to left to cut the USC lead to one. It was as close as ASU would get.
Ybarra came up later in the inning with the bases loaded and chance to tie the game or even take the lead for the Sun Devils, but he struck out.
Martinez battled trouble in the bottom half of the sixth, but got out of a bases-loaded jam by forcing redshirt sophomore shortstop Reggie Southall to fly out.
Martinez went sixth innings, giving up five runs on eight hits while walking four and striking out two on 111 pitches.
The Trojans got a pair of runs in the seventh, as Flores drove in a run and reached on a bases-loaded infield single to make it 5-3 USC, and reliever Brett Lilek walked in another run to make it 6-3.
ASU managed to get the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning with nobody out, but saw Ybarra strike out, Cerbo ground into a fielder's choice and junior second baseman Jordan Aboites flyout.
The full seedings and announcements for the NCAA regionals will be made Monday at 9 a.m. and broadcast on ESPNU.
Reach the reporter at fardaya@asu.edu or follow @fardaya15 on Twitter.
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