The regular season is winding down. The number of games remaining is now in the single digits for the Arizona State baseball team. It has been a while since Willie Bloomquist’s team has played with this much on the line. A possible regular-season Big 12 title, hosting rights for a regional.
It all took a hit as the No. 16 Sun Devils lost to visiting Oklahoma State 9-6 on May 8 at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
It was a particularly devastating loss because a six-run top of the ninth proved the difference. ASU (33-16, 16-9) had scored three in the bottom of the eighth, snapping a 3-3 tie, only to give it back, and more, moments later.
It marked the eighth win in the past nine games for Oklahoma State (32-17, 15-10), which was coming in fresh off a three-game sweep of TCU.
“We just gave them too many outs there in the ninth inning that were unnecessary, and that bit us,” Bloomquist said. “That was a game that, up until that ninth inning, there were a lot of good things. A lot of good competition on both sides. It’s a shame we ended up losing it the way we did.”
It was a little bit of everything contributing to the Oklahoma State uprising. Aidan Meola tied the game at 6 with a run-scoring double after the Sun Devils intentionally walked Kollin Ritchie. Later in the inning, Campbell Smithwick stroked a three-run home run to make it 9-6. The inning also featured a throwing error and a wild pitch.
Bloomquist did not regret walking Ritchie, who entered the game with 26 home runs, second in the country in that department.
“I’ll address the elephant in the room right away,” Bloomquist said. “The decision to walk Kollin Ritchie, I’d do it again tomorrow. That kid is leading the country in homers and had two hits and a walk. The next guy is a good hitter, no disrespect for him.
“It’s just that when you have the nation’s leading home run guy that has been clutch for that team all year long, you go into the meetings going, that guy is not going to beat us. Someone else is going to have to beat us. It was a tough decision, but I’d probably do it again if I had the opportunity.”
Bloomquist said there wasn’t a lot of yelling in the locker room. His players knew what went wrong. He chose to focus on eight innings of good baseball.
ASU junior starter Cole Carlon went a career-high seven innings but didn’t factor in the decision, with the game tied at 3 when he left. He allowed four hits, three earned runs, and walked four, while striking out 11, in throwing 115 pitches. He was already at 83 pitches through four innings, but needed just 32 to get through the next three frames.
“I knew I had to be more efficient. I wasn’t very efficient in the first three innings,” Carlon said. “Also, I had to get back to just doing what I do best, and that’s throwing the ball over the plate and just throwing strikes. I wanted to keep going, I didn’t want to come out of that game, so I just wanted to be able to give us as much as I could.”
Colin Linder took over in the eighth and struck out all three batters he faced, setting the stage for Big 12 saves leader Derek Schaefer in the ninth.
ASU’s eighth-inning go-ahead outburst was highlighted by a two-run single by Matt Polk and a run-scoring single by Brody Briggs.
Sophomore standout Landon Hairston went homerless for the seventh straight game, leaving him at 25, two short of the school record set by Mitch Jones in 2007. Hairston went 1-for-4 with a walk. He has reached base in 32 straight games, extending that with a single in the second inning.
ASU banged out 11 hits, with first baseman Dominic Smaldino getting three.
The Sun Devils have lost just one conference series this season, on the road at West Virginia. It will look to bounce back in the remaining two games of this set. They have dropped the first game of a series three times this season, against Utah, BYU, and TCU, but came back to win the second and third games in those series.
“We know what we have to do,” Hairston said. “We’ve had some tough losses this season and always managed to bounce back. We’re confident we can do it, and we’re on our own field.”
Bloomquist echoed the same sentiment.
“We’ve done it all year, been down before, and we’ve bounced back,” he said. “I love this team. I love the makeup of those guys in there. Again, we’re not going to be perfect out there, and this one stings because we had it for us to win, but these guys have been resilient all year, and I anticipate them coming back tomorrow.”
This marks the last home series for the Sun Devils, who are still in striking distance of first-place Kansas. The teams play again at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday, May 9. They round out the regular season with a three-game series at Houston May 14-16.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU baseball team gave up six runs in ninth in Big 12 loss