Baseball | 5/19/2015 11:54:00 PM
Box Score TEMPE, Ariz. – For the second straight season, the ACU Wildcats went toe-to-toe with the Arizona State Sun Devils, and for the second straight season the Sun Devils came out on top.
Last year the Wildcats played the final game at Packard Field on the ASU campus and lost 4-2 in a tense affair in front of a packed house. Tuesday night at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, the electricity wasn't quite the same, but the effort from both teams was much the same as the 12th-ranked Sun Devils walked away with a 4-1 win in front of 2,191 fans.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 15-37 on the season, while the Sun Devils improve to 33-19. ACU will be back in action Thursday and Friday in Tucson, Ariz., against the Arizona Wildcats, and then against Hawaii on Saturday in the season finale in Tucson, Ariz.
Both starting pitchers were solid Tuesday night as
Thomas Altimont – in perhaps his final start as a collegian – went six strong innings for the Wildcats, only to be matched by Jordan Aboites and his 6 1/3 innings of 11-strikeout baseball.
Altimont (3-8) gave up eight hits and struck out four batters, but only allowed two earned runs as a Sun Devil run in a three-run second scored on an error, and a run in the sixth scored after a passed ball moved the runner into scoring position.
"Thomas gave us a chance to win, which is what he does every time he goes to the mound," ACU head coach
Britt Bonneau said. "That was probably his last start, and I thought he was very impressive."
Aboites – in his first start at ASU – was even more impressive as he allowed just five hits and one run while striking out 11 Wildcats. ACU, however, had its chances to score against Aboites, but left runners at first and second with one out in the first, a runner at second in the second and third innings, a runner at first in the fifth, and a runner at third in the seventh.
"We've got to be able to get some hits in those situations," Bonneau said. "We had our chances to get to their guy early, but he got some big strikeouts when he needed them, and that put a damper on our offense. We've just got to get better at the plate.
"If we can get to the point where we do the small things well – get the ball on the ground, move a guy over with a ground ball, get a guy in with a groundout – we'll get better," he said. "That's where we've got to make a big improvement."
Arizona State pushed across the only three runs it would need in the second as Altimont fell behind each of the first five hitters, and they responded with a single by Brian Serven, a double by Cody Woodmansee, an RBI single by Trever Allen, and an RBI double by Zach Cerbo. The Wildcats wouldn't surrender another run until the sixth when the Sun Devils pushed a run across on a sacrifice fly by Joey Bielek to make it 4-0.
ACU answered in the top of the seventh when
Taylor Fajardo walked with one out and pinch-runner
Taylor Waters went to second on a wild pitch. Waters made his way to third on an infield single by
Colton Hall, and then scored on a groundout to second by
Jordan Forrester. The Wildcats had a chance for more, but
Aaron Draper's hot shot up the middle – a ball that appeared to be heading into centerfield for an RBI single – was backhanded by ASU second baseman Andrew Snow, whose throw to first was in time to get Draper and end the inning.
That would prove to be the Wildcats' final threat as they went in order in both the eighth and ninth innings.
