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No. 9 ASU baseball comes out on top in dramatic 17-16 win

Sophomore Alika Williams described the game as an "emotional roller coaster"

Alika WIlliams April 4, 2018

ASU freshman infielder Alika Williams (5) advances to third on a single from Hunter Bishop in the bottom of the second inning during a game against Cal State Fullerton at Phoenix Municipal Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday, April 4, 2018. You can read more about the game here


It was the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded two outs and a 1-1 count for sophomore Alika Williams, who reached safely to first base on a fielding error and scoring an unearned run for No. 9 ASU baseball's 17-16 win over Arizona (13-14, 2-7 Pac-12) on Sunday. 

It would take the Sun Devils just over five hours, in nine innings, to secure the sweep over its cross-state rivals. 

The Sun Devils improve to 8-1 in the Pac-12 and 25-1 overall. 

"I just want to start this press conference by saying I actually was clean shaven this morning," coach Tracy Smith said jokingly.

Sophomore's Trevor Hauver and Williams would pave the way for a combined 5-for-11, six RBIs and five runs scored while six other players would make up the remaining runs scored. 

Sun Devils' sophomore starting pitcher RJ Dabovich would have his worse outing this season lasting 2.0 innings while allowing seven runs on seven hits. Six pitchers later, Sam Romero would not only technically earn the save, but his second win of the season on 1.2 innings. 

"(Sweeping UA) being the only senior ... I do feel like I have some spotlight on me," Romero said. "Sweeping Arizona is huge because I heard we haven't done that in a long time it was just fun."

But with a cross-town rivalry there would of course have to be some drama on that road to the win.

However, so far this season the Sun Devils have shown a true testament to its offensive power by making it only more pertinent scoring pairs of runs, sophomore Spencer Torkelson's two-run shot in the second and Hauver's single in the third would bring in the tying run.

"No matter what the score was, how much they were up, we knew who we were as a hitting team,"  Hauver said. "We knew that we would obviously just come back because we felt like no lead stayed with us. The leads didn't even faze at all, we sticked to our game, stick to what we know."

Sitting on a 7-7 game, in the fourth inning the Sun Devils would commit two errors off of Wells' single allowing him to move to third and scoring an unearned run. 

A 9-7 Wildcats lead would turn into a tied ballgame with Williams' two run shot in the bottom of the fourth. But the Wildcats would flip the script on back-to-back standing doubles and a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning for an 11-9 lead. 

Mishaps knocked the Wildcats down in the fifth giving the Sun Devils a 13-11 lead on four unearned runs. 

Even so, the Sun Devils couldn't catch a break with UA constantly inching their way back into the game. A run scored in the sixth would make it a one-run game. 

Just over four hours, a whopping four-run eighth would extend the the Wildcat's lead to 16-15 but turn even for the third time of the afternoon on a wild pitch.  

With the longevity of the game Williams described it as an "emotional roller coaster." 

ASU will rest up for their Tuesday, April 2 contest with Long Beach State (3-23) with a scheduled start time of 6:30 p.m. MST. 


Reach the reporter at Edith.Noriega@asu.edu or follow @Noriega_Edith on Twitter. 

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