Baseball Can't Overcome Early Deficit in Loss to Huskies

PHOENIX - It was a tale of two games within a game on Saturday evening at Phoenix Municipal Stadium as Sun Devil Baseball scored eight unanswered runs over the final four innings but couldn't overcome an early 13-run deficit in a 14-9 loss to Washington.
 
The Sun Devil offense erupted for 15 hits in the contest with every starter recording at least one, but the early deficit and an uncharacteristic tough outing from Connor Markl proved to be the difference. 
 
Markl, who had given ASU its most consecutive 5.0+ outings since 2019 (7) entering the contest, struggled to find his command and was unable to make it out of the third inning as the Huskies jumped out to a 12-0 lead before ASU was finally able to get on the board with a Nick McLain solo shot in the fourth. 
 
After UW tacked on two more in the top of the fifth, it was all ASU as the Sun Devils kept things interesting by recording four homers and barreling balls around the ballpark all night in another impressive offensive showing.
 
Brandon Compton and Ryan Campos each recorded three-hit nights - the latter recording his team-best sixth such game of the season. McLain, Jacob Tobias, Steven Ondina and Ethan Mendoza all went yard in the contest.
 
Jonah Giblin had arguably his best game as a Sun Devil after being forced into relief in the fifth inning, tossing 5.0 scoreless innings and allowing just a single hit - a double on the second pitch he threw after entering the game. The junior would go on to strike out a career-best seven batters and gave ASU a chance to make it interesting late in the game. 
 
TURNING POINT
Connor Markl had been Mr. Reliable all season for ASU, coming into the night with seven-straight starts of 5.0 innings or more and with the second-best ERA in Pac-12-only games this season. The 5.0+ streak was the longest at ASU since Kansas City Royals pitcher Alec Marsh started 2019 with 10 such outings. Unfortunately, Saturday wasn't meant to be for Markl as UW jumped on him for a five-run second inning and added four more in the third to take a 10-0 lead.
 
BIG MOMENT
The Sun Devils picked away at the Husky lead over the second half of the game, recording three runs on and RBI from McLain and a two-run homer from Tobias in the fifth and three more on a three-run shot by Ondina in the sixth to cut the deficit to 14-7. With no outs after the Ondina homer, Campos notched an infield single and ASU had the heart of the order with a chance to further carve into the deficit but ASU's 2-3-4 hitters went down in order to end the threat. ASU made it 14-8 in the next inning and had two on with two outs for Campos who laced the first pitch he saw to deel left field - directly at the UW defender - to end the threat
 
FINAL STRAW
Giblin's massive outing took ASU into the ninth trying to find some late magic like it did on Friday. Mendoza notched a one-out solo homer to make it a five-run game and Demera and Ondina walked with two-out to turn things back around to Campos. For the second-straight at-bat Campos absolutely smoked a ball at 101 off the bat to right field this time, a line-drive right at the right fielder this time to end the contest and force a rubber match at Muni on Sunday.
 
QUOTABLES
Arizona State Coach Willie Bloomquist
On what he thought went wrong with Markl tonight
"Yeah, it wasn't his night. Fastball command wasn't there and for him to be effective with the rest of his repertoire and in his arsenal, he's got to have the fastball command. Didn't have it tonight. Obviously wasn't one of his better outings and it's going to happen. I was in a quandary there to leave him in to see if we can get him to settle in a little bit and give us some length that we needed. Just didn't happen and I'm not gonna apologize for leaving him out there too long. On the other hand we needed to try to get some length out of him to preserve our bullpen for tomorrow. Being down that big early, I didn't want to have to go to our better arms if I didn't have to and try to get some type of length out there like I said. Usually when he has scuffled a little bit with his command early on, he usually settles in and does a good job settling in. But, tonight was just an off night for him, but he'll bounce back his next out I'm sure."
 
On what the state of the bullpen is for tomorrow and Tuesday
"We're more concerned just about tomorrow. We'll start with Hunter Omlid tomorrow. Hopefully he can give us some length and give us a nice start. That would be ideal. We'll have Wyatt Halvorson, Cole Carlon, Ryan Schieffer should be back able to go again tomorrow and Sean Fitzpatrick. So, we have enough bullets for tomorrow, I think given the job that Jonah did coming in. It kind of goes unnoticed for him, but to give us five solid innings right there, we don't have to burn another arm. That was big on his part. I was expecting to maybe get two out of him and then go from there. But, he was throwing the heck out of it and threw the ball out of the stadium."
 
Arizona State First Baseman Jacob Tobias
On the resilience from the team being down early
"Yeah, we know we're never out of the game and obviously in a situation like that, Markl's been amazing for us all year and he had one bad outing and it stinks but, we all know what he's done for us the whole year. So, we didn't take it any other way, any more than just a challenge. And so, just knowing that we're never gonna be out of a game and that we're able to swing our way back into pretty much any game. I mean, if we literally get one or two more base runners we're a home run away from being in that game."
 
On what the mental block is after starting down 10 runs
"I wouldn't say there's much of a mental block. I feel like the way that we responded being down that many runs that early is just a testament to who we are. I could probably show you a huge handful of teams in the nation that go down 14 to 0 and just kind of give in. And so, just being able to put up as many runs as we did and then the amount of zeros that we did after that as a bullpen, I don't think there's any block. We just didn't get enough out of it that we wanted to, but I feel like it was a good end to the game and hopefully it'll lead us into a good day tomorrow."
 
Arizona State Pitcher Jonah Giblin
On if he was proud with the bullpen's performance after Markhl's performance
"I mean, it all starts with the first guy out of the pen to set the tone for the rest of the bullpen. Cornelius went out there and did his best and some days you don't have it, some days I don't have it a lot of the time. You just gotta work through it and the goal is just to keep us in it enough to let our offense go to work because anything's possible with these guys and that's the mindset."
 
NOTABLES 

• Ryan Campos' third-inning single means he has now reached base safely in 127-of-137 career games (92.7 percent) with the Sun Devils and all but one game this season.
• His fifth inning double was Campos' Pac-12-leading 20th of the season. It also marked the fourth time in three seasons under head coach Willie Bloomquist that a player has reached at least 20 doubles and 10 homers in a season (Joe Lampe and Nate Baez in 2022, Luke Keaschall in 2023). For perspective, only five Sun Devils from 1998-2001 accomplished that milestone. 
• Catching a runner stealing in the ninth, Campos has now thrown out 16 of the last 45 baserunners attempting to steal against him after starting the year out at just a 2-for-19 clip. His 18 runners thrown out this year are tops in the Pac-12.
• ASU has reached double digit hits in 31 of 48 games this season, posting 15 today.
• Steven Ondina's sixth-inning homer was his fourth of the season for ASU. That tally is notable as he had just two in his career over 110 games and 365 ABs before coming to the Sun Devils this season. 
• It continued his recent hot streak in which he has batted .409 over the last 12 games, second on the team. He has 13 RBIs out of the nine-hole in that stretch with a .705 slugging percentage (three homers, two triples).
• Jonah Giblin's 5.0 innings of work tied the most for his ASU career and were his most in relief. He struck out seven in the process, also career-high at ASU.
• Giblin has allowed just one earned run over his last eight appearances over 15.1 innings, lowering his ERA from 10.03 to 4.85 in the process. 
• With nine runs today, ASU has scored 102 runs over its last eight games (12.75 runs per game).
• This season, ASU has posted 48 3+ run innings and 30 4+ run innings following its three-run fifth and three-run sixth.
• Ethan Mendoza became the 10th Sun Devil to record multiple home runs this season, matching the team's total each of the last two seasons.
• Nick McLain has homered in three straight games and now has eight on the season. His 40 RBIs after tonight's two-RBI effort are second on the squad. In the last 12 games, of which ASU is 9-3, McLain is batting .341 with four homers and five doubles for a .727 slugging percentage to go along with 14 RBIs - third-best on the team.
• Jacob Tobias' homer tonight was the 30th of his career, tied with Jason Kipnis for the ninth-best mark for ASU between 1998-present. 
• ASU's four homers tonight were the most allowed in a single game by the Huskies this season, the fourth-straight series in which ASU has accomplished that feat in at least one game (4 at UCLA, 4 vs. USC, 5 vs. UCSD and 4 vs. UW).
• Kien Vu extended his hitting streak to 14 straight games today, the longest for a Sun Devil this season.
• ASU pitchers struck out 11 Washington batters, the 24th time this season accomplishing the feat. It had just 21 such games all of last season. 

 
INNING BY INNING 
First Inning
After back-to-back groundouts, the Huskies managed to launch one over center field for a solo home run. A fly out to left field ended the frame with the Huskies up 1-0. Kien Vu singled to left field for the Sun Devils first hit of the night. A pop fly and a groundout left Vu stranded on first to end the inning with the Huskies up 1-0 over the Sun Devils. 
 
Second Inning
The Huskies reached on a throwing error from the third base men and things snowballed from there. After Connor Markl earned his first strikeout of the night, the Huskies singled one to center field while advancing their runner home. After the Huskies managed to steal second, the next batter was walked and both advanced to the next base off a wild pitch. With bases loaded due to another walk, the Huskies singled one to left field and brought two runners home while the other advanced to second. With bases loaded due to another walk, the Huskies singled to center field bringing in one runner and leaving the bases loaded. After a walk advanced a runner home unearned, a fly out and strikeout ended the frame for the Huskies up 6-0 over the Sun Devils. The Sun Devils retired in order. 
 
Third Inning
After back-to-back groundouts, the Huskies singled to center field. The Huskies managed to double to center field bringing in their runner who was on first. With first and second occupied after a walk, the Huskies homered over left field for a three-run shot. Matt Cornelius relieved Markl and struck out the batter for the third out of the Huskies' frame. The Huskies held a 10-0 lead with the Sun Devils up to bat. With Mario Demera being walked, the Huskies managed to perform a double play off a grounder hit to the shortstop. Ryan Campos singled to center field for the Sun Devils second hit of the night. A strikeout for the final out of the inning left Campos stranded on first.
 
Fourth Inning
After the Huskies first batter of the inning was walked, Cornelius struck out the next batter. With back-to-back walks, the bases were loaded for UW. Prior to a fly out ending the frame for the Huskies, the Huskies brought two runners home off a fielder's choice to third base and a wild pitch. Nick McLain homered just over the right center wall on a 1-1 count to give the Sun Devils their first score of the game. Brandon Compton singled one to right center and advanced to third off a single down the left line hit by Isaiah Jackson. Both Compton and Jackson were left stranded after a fly out marked the third out for the Sun Devils. The Sun Devils trailed the Huskies 12-1 heading into the fifth inning. 
 
Fifth Inning
The Huskies singled one to right field and the runner advanced to second after the next batter was walked. A double down right center brought both runners home to extend the Huskies lead to 14-1. Jonah Giblin managed to strike out the next three batters ending the Huskies frame. Campos doubled down the left line and came home off a single to left field hit by McLain. Following that, Jacob Tobias hammered one over the right field wall for a two-run homer to close the Sun Devils deficit to 14-4. After Compton doubled one to right field, he was left stranded due to a groundout to close the inning. 
 
Sixth Inning
After the first batter was walked for the Huskies, the runner advanced to second off a groundout. A pop fly and strikeout ended the frame for UW. Jackson singled to center field and advanced to second after Demera was walked. Ondina went big fly over over the left field wall for a three-run homer to bring the Sun Devils deficit to 14-7 with zero outs. Campos singled to the second basemen and advanced to second after Vu grounded out but was left stranded as a fly out and groundout ended the Sun Devils frame.
 
Seventh Inning
A groundout, and back-to-back fly outs retired the Huskies in order. Compton singled to left field and then advanced to second off a groundout by Mendoza. Demera singled to right field which allowed Compton to run home. A fly out sent to center field ended the frame for the Sun Devils who trailed, 14-8.
 
Eighth Inning 
Back-to-back strikeouts by Jonah Giblin and a fly out caught by Vu retired the Huskies in order. A fly out, pop fly, and strikeout retired the Sun Devils in order.
 
Ninth Inning
After the Huskies made it to first base off a throwing error, Campos made the throw to second to catch the runner stealing for the second out. Giblin struck out the batter for the third out to end the Huskies' frame. Mendoza sent one over right field for a single homerun to close the deficit to 14-9 with one out. With first and second occupied for the Sun Devils off of back-to-back walks and two outs, a fly out ended the Sun Devils' chances of completing a comeback. The Sun Devils lost 14-9 to the Huskies.
 
ON DECK: 
The Sun Devils will remain at Phoenix Municipal Stadium for the rubber match against Washington on Sunday afternoon at 1np.m. AZT, looking for its third-straight series win. The game will be broadcast on Pac-12 Arizona and available over the airwaves on KDUS 1060 AM.