Sun Devils drop wild series opener against Oklahoma State

What was billed as a battle of potent offenses turned into a wild back-and-forth game in the late innings, seeing Oklahoma State hang on to claim a 9-6 win in the opening game of the final home series of the season.

Cole Carlon took the ball in his usual Friday night spot and looked like he could be in for a short outing. Allowing single runs in each of the first three innings, Carlon stood at 67 pitches with four walks in that span. The next four innings however, he was lights out. Striking out 11 and allowing just 4 hits, Carlon set a new season high with 115 pitches, capping it off with a power-on-power strikeout of Kollin Ritchie.

Offensively, the Sun Devils struck early for three in the 1st inning off starter Ethan Lund, helped by the sun and swirling winds as the Cowboys defense could not track down pop ups from Austen Roellig and Dominic Smaldino, later scoring on an RBI single by Matt Polk.

It was all pitching until the 8th inning as Lund, Noah Wech, and Hudson Barrett held the Devils scoreless for the next 6 innings, allowing just 3 hits and walking 2 between them.

After Colin Linder struck out the side in order in the top of the 8th, the offense found their spark once again, striking for three more runs on three hits, including another hard to track pop up for the Cowboys defense off the bat of Dominic Smaldino. Matt Polk drove in two more runs and Brody Briggs in turn drove Polk in, giving the Devils a 6-3 cushion and Derek Schaefer coming on for the save.

Baseball is a funny game as everyone knows, and for all the breaks that go your way, they’re bound to be returned in the opposite way. Oklahoma State would hang 6 runs on 4 hits on Schaefer in the 9th, aided by a throwing error by Austen Roellig and an infield single where Roellig was caught in no-man’s land attempting to cover 3rd. The crushing blow came off the bat of catcher Campbell Smithwick as he launched a home run off the batter’s eye in CF to make the score 9-6.

Arizona State would get Smaldino to the plate representing the tying run in the bottom of the 9th, but could do no damage as he struck out to end the game.