Thursday, May 18, 2017

Arizona vs. ASU baseball recap: Wildcats take down Sun Devils 6-5 to open series

An old friend made the bus trip to Phoenix

During the 2016 postseason, the Arizona Wildcats kind of became known for their eccentric baseball tendencies.

Like two-run squeeze plays.

We hadn’t seen much of that this year, but the two-run suicide squeeze made its grand return in Phoenix on Thursday night as the Wildcats took out the Arizona State Sun Devils 6-5 to open the three-game series.

It happened with the bases loaded in the 7th.

JJ Matijevic actually came up first, but struck out on a 93 MPH fastball from ASU reliever Connor Higgins. Higgins had entered the game with the bases loaded and no one out.

So Alfonso Rivas stepped to the plate, and with Louis Boyd and Cal Stevenson breaking from third and second respectively, Rivas dropped the bunt down to the first base side of the mound.

And while ASU was trying to get Rivas out, both Boyd and Stevenson crossed the plate, giving Arizona the 5-3 lead at the time.

The Wildcats would score another run on a throwing error by the ASU shortstop, extending the lead to three at the seventh inning stretch.

After this game, Arizona is now 13-12 in Pac-12 play, and 34-17 overall. ASU drops to 8-17 in conference and 23-27 overall. The Sun Devils have to win their final five games to avoid their second losing season in program history.

It was an interesting night of Arizona punching and ASU counterpunching throughout the game.

JC Cloney got the start for the Wildcats despite it being a Thursday game, and he wasn’t incredibly sharp, allowing a baserunner in every inning after the first.

But it was the Wildcats that landed the first blow against ASU senior righty Eder Erives.

Rivas singled in Stevenson in the fourth inning to make the score 1-0.

However, with the bases loaded, both Nick Quintana and Cesar Salazar failed to get the ball out of the infield, leaving three Wildcats on and keeping the Sun Devils within one.

This allowed ASU to tie things up in its half of the fourth. Zach Cerbo walked then moved to third on a single by Carter Aldrete.

Andrew Snow then walked to the plate and skied a fly ball deep enough to right to score Cerbo easily and make the score 1-1.

The first time the Wildcats actually drove the ball somewhere came in the fifth.

With two runners on, Matijevic came up and laced a pitch from Erives to right field, hitting off the top of the wall. They both came around to score, giving Arizona a 3-1 lead.

That was Matijevic’s 56th career double, which ties him for the sixth-most in school history with former Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale.

Of course, ASU answered right back. With one down in the bottom of the fifth, Gage Canning smashed a Cloney pitch over the scoreboard in right center for his sixth home run of the season.

Later in the inning, a couple of infield hits and a walk filled the bases with Sun Devils. A Cloney ball in the dirt ricocheted off of Salazar and back to the netting, allowing ASU to tie the game.

Cloney would later strikeout Aldrete looking to end the threat and keep the score tied.

After Arizona was set down in order in the top of the sixth, an error and a sac bunt put a Sun Devil runner on second.

When Cloney reached a 2-2 count against Myles Denson, Jay Johnson took him off the mound and Michael Flynn trotted in from the left field bullpen.

Flynn got the strikeout right away for the second out of the inning.

Canning was then intentionally walked, and Flynn drew a fly ball to center to end the inning and keep the score tied, setting up the deciding top of the seventh.

But just like the first couple of times Arizona plated runs, ASU responded in the seventh, they just didn’t tie it this time.

Cerbo hit a solo home run to straight away center field to cut the Sun Devils’ deficit to two.

In the eighth, ASU shot themselves in the foot on the basepaths. Snow roped a liner down the right field line, but pranced around the first base bag and failed to make it to second on what should have been an easy double.

After a strikeout, Denson flew out to right, which could have easily advanced Snow to third had he been standing on second.

Rio Gomez would come on and unleash a couple of wild pitches, cementing Snow’s bad decision to not leg out a double. Snow was stranded at third by Tylor Megill instead of scoring, keeping game at 6-4.

Megill did his typical struggling in the late innings, allowing multiple ASU runners in the 8th and 9th. A run did score in the final inning to make the score 6-5.

The second game of the three-game series is scheduled to start at 7 PM PT on Friday night. That game, just like Saturday’s, will be shown on Pac-12 Network. Cameron Ming is the likely starter for Arizona on Friday night.



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