Sun Devils drop 14-inning marathon to open NCAA tournament
- Andrew Hayslett
- May 30
- 4 min read
The last time the Sun Devils played a game that went 14 or more innings was on April 9, 2021, when Arizona State defeated Washington 3-2 in 16 innings. A lot has changed since that game: there is a new head coach for the Sun Devils, the Sun Devils moved to the Big 12 and all the players in Friday’s game were in high school or middle school.
Fast forward five years, and the stakes are a lot higher as a chance to head to the driver’s seat game was on the line for Arizona State baseball (37-20). The Sun Devils lost a 14-inning marathon to Ole Miss (37-21), 7-6.
Junior lefty Cole Carlon started the night on the mound for the Sun Devils, and he struggled with one of his worst performances of the season. He went six and two-thirds innings, but a four-run third unraveled his night early. He finished the night with six runs allowed on six hits and a pair of walks.
Offensively, redshirt junior second baseman Nu’u Contrades launched a pair of homers, driving in three. Fifth-year right fielder Dean Toigo raked in a pair of RBI hits, including a homer. Redshirt sophomore third baseman Austen Roellig drove in a run on a groundout as well.
Then, after seven innings, the bats fell quiet. They only had three singles and two walks in the second half of the game. Often, the Sun Devil bats that followed the hits grounded into double plays or fielder’s choices, hurting potential rallies.
For the first 13 innings of the marathon, Arizona State head coach Willie Bloomquist out-coached Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco as the decisions Bloomquist made worked.
Bloomquist’s bullpen decisions all worked out, starting with sophomore righty Taylor Penn getting the only batter he faced to strikeout. Senior southpaw Sean Fitzpatrick struggled, allowing two base runners while recording one out, but Bloomquist turned to his junior right-handed closer Derek Schaefer to put out the fire, and Schaefer successfully did that.
After Schaefer threw a scoreless 34 pitches, Bloomquist went to his ‘pen to get junior righty Jaden Alba to start extras. That decision was proven right as Alba carved up the Ole Miss batters for four innings.
Offensively, Bloomquist pulled sophomore left fielder Ky McGary, who went 0-3 at the plate, for junior Dominic Longo. That worked as Longo reached base in two of his three plate appearances.
On the other side, Bianco’s Ole Miss bullpen gave up a pair of runs, and his decision to pinch-run for his best hitter, senior infielder Will Furniss, looked to bear unwanted fruit as Furniss missed out on two plate appearances due to getting pulled, as freshman Luke Romine did not reach base on those first two plate appearances.
Alba struggled to start the 14th, walking Romine and another Ole Miss batter. Alba was at 78 pitches at that point, after throwing a season-high 88 against Houston in his last appearance, 13 days before Friday. Bloomquist opted to keep Alba in and then allowed back-to-back singles, allowing Romine to score and end the game in what was a commendable outing.
Alba allowed six hits and three walks in four innings of work. The outing was outstanding, especially compared to Carlon’s rough start. Alba’s ERA goes down to 6.52 this season.
Eight of the ten hits came from the top four batters of the order, and all of the runs scored came from that group. Contrades and Toigo had their bats working, both going 3-7 with a pair of runs scored with their aforementioned RBI. Toigo’s home run tied his single-season career high of total homers with 18.
Despite not getting a hit, sophomore outfielder Landon Hairston walked three times and scored twice.
Junior first baseman Dominic Smaldino reached base three times but did not score a run as the two batters behind him did not record a hit. Roellig walked twice and recorded an RBI, but graduate outfielder Matt Polk struggled after having an all-tournament team performance in the Big 12 tournament. He went 0-6 and left five men on base.
Redshirt sophomore catcher Brody Briggs also did not have a hit. In his 43 starts this season, he failed to get a hit in 21 games.
The Sun Devils probably should have had one more hit, as McGary appeared to beat out Ole Miss pitcher Hunter Elliott to the first base bag, but umpire Angel Campos ruled McGary out, and the Sun Devils did not challenge the play.
Had McGary been ruled safe, Briggs would have gotten the opportunity to hit with a runner on with no outs, and the lineup would have flipped to the top of the order with Hairston up to bat, assuming that there would not have been a double play.
The Sun Devils face South Dakota State on Saturday at 12 Arizona time in an elimination game.
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