PALO ALTO – Spencer Torkelson hit two monster home runs and Sam Romero pitched the best outing of his career, but the Sun Devil bullpen was unable to hold on to a late lead in ASU's 11-6 loss at No. 2 Stanford on Saturday afternoon.
Torkelson notched his 17th and 18th home runs of the season, two moon shots that both easily cleared the trees in left field as he extended his national home run lead in the process. Lyle Lin, Taylor Lane and Alika Williams each finished with multi-hit games as well.
Sam Romero was nigh unhittable on the afternoon as he went a career-best 7.1 innings with just two hits and two runs allowed. The junior struck out a career-high eight batters to two walks for his third quality start of the season.
Romero was instrumental in keeping the Cardinal offense off-balance all afternoon as he threw five 1-2-3 innings on the afternoon.
Unfortunately, the Stanford offense found its groove late and the surge would spoil Romero's stellar outing and a solid day from the ASU offense as well, which finished with 11 hits and largely was successful against one of the elite pitchers in the conference.
ASU got out to an early lead behind Torkelson's big fly in the first inning, a solo shot that gave the Sun Devils their first lead of the series and was just the second home run given up by Stanford's Kris Bubic this season.
ASU would add to its lead in the top of the fourth as Taylor Lane knocked a two-RBI double after Stanford called off its intentional walk of the senior, plating Lyle Lin and Trevor Hauver to make it 3-0.
Stanford got on Romero in the bottom of the sixth, picking up their only two hits of the day against the junior on a leadoff walk followed by an RBI triple. Romero calmly locked in to induce three straight outs from there though to keep ASU up 3-2.
Torkelson's second long ball in the eighth again came at the expense of Bubic, and the freshman emphatically slammed his bat down for his trot across the bases in front of a heavily partisan crowd full of many family and friends who came to support the youngsters homecoming. The dinger made it 4-2 in favor of the Devils before things escalated negatively in the bottom half of the inning.
A pair of walks and an infield error that looked like it would have been an inning-ending double play to preserve the Sun Devil lead caused things to spiral out of control as Stanford took advantage to the tune of nine runs and a commanding 11-4 lead heading into the final frame.
Gage Workman hit a two-run home run for his second long ball of the year in the top of the ninth but ASU was unable to close the gap from there.
The final game of the series is scheduled to get underway tomorrow at 1 p.m. PT at the Sunken Diamond.
Torkelson notched his 17th and 18th home runs of the season, two moon shots that both easily cleared the trees in left field as he extended his national home run lead in the process. Lyle Lin, Taylor Lane and Alika Williams each finished with multi-hit games as well.
Sam Romero was nigh unhittable on the afternoon as he went a career-best 7.1 innings with just two hits and two runs allowed. The junior struck out a career-high eight batters to two walks for his third quality start of the season.
Romero was instrumental in keeping the Cardinal offense off-balance all afternoon as he threw five 1-2-3 innings on the afternoon.
Unfortunately, the Stanford offense found its groove late and the surge would spoil Romero's stellar outing and a solid day from the ASU offense as well, which finished with 11 hits and largely was successful against one of the elite pitchers in the conference.
ASU got out to an early lead behind Torkelson's big fly in the first inning, a solo shot that gave the Sun Devils their first lead of the series and was just the second home run given up by Stanford's Kris Bubic this season.
ASU would add to its lead in the top of the fourth as Taylor Lane knocked a two-RBI double after Stanford called off its intentional walk of the senior, plating Lyle Lin and Trevor Hauver to make it 3-0.
Stanford got on Romero in the bottom of the sixth, picking up their only two hits of the day against the junior on a leadoff walk followed by an RBI triple. Romero calmly locked in to induce three straight outs from there though to keep ASU up 3-2.
Torkelson's second long ball in the eighth again came at the expense of Bubic, and the freshman emphatically slammed his bat down for his trot across the bases in front of a heavily partisan crowd full of many family and friends who came to support the youngsters homecoming. The dinger made it 4-2 in favor of the Devils before things escalated negatively in the bottom half of the inning.
A pair of walks and an infield error that looked like it would have been an inning-ending double play to preserve the Sun Devil lead caused things to spiral out of control as Stanford took advantage to the tune of nine runs and a commanding 11-4 lead heading into the final frame.
Gage Workman hit a two-run home run for his second long ball of the year in the top of the ninth but ASU was unable to close the gap from there.
The final game of the series is scheduled to get underway tomorrow at 1 p.m. PT at the Sunken Diamond.