After a farewell ceremony with five ASU seniors, and a surprising national anthem rendition by senior starting pitcher Grant Schneider, all eyes were on on the diamond as the California Golden Bears took a 3-0 win over ASU in the team's final game of the season on Saturday night.
Schneider said the experience of singing the National Anthem prior to the game was special, and a moment he will cherish for the rest of his life.
He has performed the anthem on two separate occasions, first at the high school level and again in summer ball.
"Tonight was very emotional, but on a good note," Scheider said of his senior day. "This is a group of individuals that I've been around for four years and got to know every single one of them really closely. It's special because they are rooting for you as much as you are rooting for them."
As for the game itself, Cal scored early in the third inning when junior left fielder Jonah Davis reached safely at first base on a fielding error by ASU sophomore outfielder Carter Aldrete.
A throwing error by Aldrete gave Cal the opportunity to move the players 90 feet and score two unearned runs.
In the fourth inning, Cal scored the only other run of Saturday night's season finale when sophomore infielder Andrew Vaughn reached safely on an RBI groundout, scoring freshman infielder Sam Wezniak.
ASU's offense was completely shut out by Cal's junior starting pitcher Aaron Shortridge, who pitched nine complete innings and allowed only six hits.
For the second consecutive season, ASU will not advance to the NCAA Regionals, finishing with a conference record of 13-17 and an overall record of 23-32.
When looking back on this season, ASU head coach Tracy Smith gave an honest answer and said he saw things he had never seen before.
"As a coach and someone who has been around this thing a long time, some of the stuff I don't have a rational answer (for) ... other than we were young," Smith said. "I've had some really good days coaching with teams and where everything seems to go your way. This year, we didn't get a lot of breaks and you make your own breaks, but what I'm going to remember about this group ... it's going to make them stronger."
Now the elephant in the room — will Smith return next season?
"There's no decisions that are made in here that are short term on job preservation," Smith said of his job security. "I have no fear of losing my job. I think if people go down that path, you start making silly decisions that don't benefit what should be benefited."
Reach the reporter at Edith.Noriega@asu.edu or follow @Noriega_Edith on Twitter.
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