ASU vs. Arizona baseball: Wildcats host Sun Devils for mid-week battle

Some Territorial Cup points on the line on Tuesday

On Tuesday night, the baseball portion of the Territorial Cup gets underway at Hi Corbett when the Arizona Wildcats host the Arizona State Sun Devils.

First pitch is scheduled for 7 PM PT and will be streamed here. Why isn’t it on Pac-12 Network? Because the Bay Area schools of Stanford and Cal will be there instead, because of course they will.

ASU comes to Tucson with a lowly 12-14 overall record, and just 2-7 in the Pac-12. Even though this isn’t technically a conference game, the Pac-12 schedule up to this point has allowed the Wildcats to get some early looks at what the Sun Devils are all about.

“We’ve seen a little bit because they’ve played the last two opponents that we’ve played right before us,” Jay Johnson explained about how much he knew about ASU immediately after Sunday’s win over USC. “Talent up the wazzu; I think they had the number one recruiting class in the country in one of the publications and a lot of those guys are playing.”

“They’re big-bodied, they’re physical, they’re competitive, so I’m expecting a good, competitive game,” coach continued. “It’s great that we get to play here and hopefully everybody will show up in the middle of the week and support us the way they have.”

Arizona’s mentality is that every game is the Super Bowl, so they try not to put any more stock into these ASU games, but sometimes natural human emotion takes over.

“It’s a big rivalry game, first one,” Mitchell Morimoto said of his feelings about it being a junior college transfer from Mesa CC after growing up in Washington. “I’m excited about it, but there’s nothing really there. I’ve never been a fan of ASU and I’ve never rooted against them growing up in the Northwest, but it’s huge and I’m excited for it.”

“I’ve just heard it gets wild and it’s a huge deal,” Morimoto added.

“It’s definitely a cool environment here,” Kyle Lewis said. “I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

Last year, Arizona hosted the yearly three-game series. The Wildcats only won one of those three games, but it still left a positive impression on UA’s second baseman.

“That ASU series, it was just a blast to play in,” Lewis reminisced about last year’s games against the Sun Devils. “I remember I came in to pinch-hit in one of the games, and that was when there was 7,000 fans here and the towels were going crazy. I was standing on first base, and I had a steal sign, I looked up and I just saw all the towels and it was a pretty unreal scene.”

We’ll see what Tuesday night’s crowd looks like, but after drawing nearly 12,000 fans over the weekend for the USC series, there’s reason to believe Tuesday night will be hopping at Hi C. So make sure to come join the party. Arizona will also be looking to improve its home record to 17-0 this year.

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