LOS ANGELES – Sun Devil Baseball rallied to send the game to extra innings but came up short in a walk-off loss at No. 16 UCLA on Friday evening in Los Angeles.
Spencer Torkelson tied Barry Bonds' ASU freshman home run record and Brady Corrigan pitched a phenomenal effort in relief that helped the Sun Devils climb back from a 4-0 deficit to send things to 10 innings, but the comeback came up just short.
Alika Williams was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Torkelson added a sac fly in addition to his 11th home run of the season to help pace the ASU offense.
Corrigan had the outing of his early career, throwing 5.2 innings of scoreless ball as he punched out five, walked none and allowed just one hit to keep ASU (11-11, 3-1 Pac-12) within striking distance and saving the Sun Devil bullpen in the process. Entering the contest, Corrigan had pitched in just 4.0 innings this season in four appearances with an 11.25 era, seven hits allowed and just three strikeouts before his tide-changing performance on Friday night.
With Corrigan dealing, his fellow freshman Torkelson sent an absolute laser over the left field wall to lead off the seventh inning to put ASU on the board. It was Torkelson's 11th home run in the first 22 games of his career, tying Barry Bonds' 1983 ASU freshman home run record.
Torkelson's dinger got the bats rolling as Carter Aldrete followed up with a single and scored three batters later on a Hunter Bishop pinch-hit, two-out RBI single to make it 4-2. Bishop advanced to third on some head's up base-running to put himself in position to score on Williams' RBI single that came after the freshman fouled off five pitches to cut the UCLA lead to one.
Torkelson would even things up in the eighth inning with his fourth sacrifice fly of the season to score Gage Canning and tie the game at 4-4. The RBI marked the freshman's team-leading eighth multi-RBI game this season – three more than any other Sun Devil.
Chaz Montoya helped build upon Corrigan's gutty effort as he teamed up to holding UCLA scoreless in seven consecutive innings before the Bruins broke through in the bottom of the 10th inning. Montoya finished with 2.1 innings pitched with one run allowed and two strikeouts.
It was an inauspicious start for the Sun Devils, who struggled fielding and throwing the ball early. ASU had four errors in the first two frames, allowing the Bruins (14-4, 4-0 Pac-12) to plate four runs with only one of those coming on a base hit – a bunt single that would allow a second run following an ASU defensive misplay as UCLA jumped out to a 4-0 lead early.
Corrigan entered the game with the bases loaded and only one out in the bottom of the second and quickly stifled the bleeding as he strung together the best innings of his career to keep the game within reason.
The Sun Devils will look to even the series tomorrow at Jackie Robinson Stadium with the game scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network.
Spencer Torkelson tied Barry Bonds' ASU freshman home run record and Brady Corrigan pitched a phenomenal effort in relief that helped the Sun Devils climb back from a 4-0 deficit to send things to 10 innings, but the comeback came up just short.
Alika Williams was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Torkelson added a sac fly in addition to his 11th home run of the season to help pace the ASU offense.
Corrigan had the outing of his early career, throwing 5.2 innings of scoreless ball as he punched out five, walked none and allowed just one hit to keep ASU (11-11, 3-1 Pac-12) within striking distance and saving the Sun Devil bullpen in the process. Entering the contest, Corrigan had pitched in just 4.0 innings this season in four appearances with an 11.25 era, seven hits allowed and just three strikeouts before his tide-changing performance on Friday night.
With Corrigan dealing, his fellow freshman Torkelson sent an absolute laser over the left field wall to lead off the seventh inning to put ASU on the board. It was Torkelson's 11th home run in the first 22 games of his career, tying Barry Bonds' 1983 ASU freshman home run record.
Torkelson's dinger got the bats rolling as Carter Aldrete followed up with a single and scored three batters later on a Hunter Bishop pinch-hit, two-out RBI single to make it 4-2. Bishop advanced to third on some head's up base-running to put himself in position to score on Williams' RBI single that came after the freshman fouled off five pitches to cut the UCLA lead to one.
Torkelson would even things up in the eighth inning with his fourth sacrifice fly of the season to score Gage Canning and tie the game at 4-4. The RBI marked the freshman's team-leading eighth multi-RBI game this season – three more than any other Sun Devil.
Chaz Montoya helped build upon Corrigan's gutty effort as he teamed up to holding UCLA scoreless in seven consecutive innings before the Bruins broke through in the bottom of the 10th inning. Montoya finished with 2.1 innings pitched with one run allowed and two strikeouts.
It was an inauspicious start for the Sun Devils, who struggled fielding and throwing the ball early. ASU had four errors in the first two frames, allowing the Bruins (14-4, 4-0 Pac-12) to plate four runs with only one of those coming on a base hit – a bunt single that would allow a second run following an ASU defensive misplay as UCLA jumped out to a 4-0 lead early.
Corrigan entered the game with the bases loaded and only one out in the bottom of the second and quickly stifled the bleeding as he strung together the best innings of his career to keep the game within reason.
The Sun Devils will look to even the series tomorrow at Jackie Robinson Stadium with the game scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network.