Errors doom No. 11 Arizona Baseball as Wildcats fall to ASU

PHOENIX, AZ – Despite starting hot, No. 11 Arizona Baseball (21-8, 9-3) fell to rival Arizona State (14-16, 5-4) by a 10-6 final. 

It was a battle from the start as the Wildcats took on a talented but inconsistent Arizona State team in yet another mid-week non-conference game. And despite No. 11 Arizona Baseball pulling ahead 6-3, the Wildcats were doomed by late-game errors and pitching mistakes as the Wildcats fell 10-6 to the Sun Devils.

Tanner O’Tremba and Tony Bullard went a combined 4-7 from the plate with two home runs, four RBI’s, and four runs, but ultimately it wasn’t enough in this one.

Arizona would have a decent pitching outing, using five different pitchers as they surrendered just three earned runs on 13 hits while striking out four ASU batters.

However, the bigger story here was the errors and mistakes committed by the Wildcats. Arizona would finish their day with three costly errors, which resulted in seven unearned runs for the Devils and an eventual win.

Despite jumping out to a 6-3 lead, the errors and mistakes doomed the Wildcats as Arizona Baseball fell to ASU in this mid-week tilt.

Fresh off their first-ever sweep of Washington in Seattle, Arizona brought the hot bats as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when O’Tremba would homer to right field, scoring two.

Unfortunately for Arizona, ASU wouldn’t go quietly, adding a run in the bottom of the first and again adding two more in the second to tie things at 3-3 after ASU’s Cam Magee homered to right-center, scoring two runs.

Luckily, Arizona’s potent offense would stay white-hot as Chase Davis and Tony Bullard would homer in back-to-back innings to make it 5-3 after four innings.

Relying on more timely hitting, the Wildcats would another insurance run in the fifth inning when Noah Turley singled to right field, scoring O’Tremba to make it 6-3.

Unfortunately, that lead wouldn’t last long as the Wildcats would commit a few costly errors in the bottom half of the fifth inning which ultimately led to a three-run home run from ASU’s Kai Murphy to make it 7-6.

More mistakes would cost the Wildcats again as the Sun Devils would tack on two more runs in the sixth inning, and again in the eighth inning to make it 10-6.

The Wildcats would have no response in this one, ultimately falling to ASU to drop the mid-week tilt against the Sun Devils.

Where does Arizona Baseball go from here?

With the loss, Arizona falls to 21-8 (9-3) on the year and will return to action on Friday when they open up with a three-game series against Washington State in Tucson. The Wildcats will then follow that up with a Tuesday evening game against New Mexico State in Tucson.