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ASU baseball: Late miscues doom Sun Devils on 80's Appreciation Night

The Huskies scored six runs in the eighth inning to spoil Barry Bonds' return to Packard Stadium.

By Danny Shapiro
Barry Bonds, pictured here meeting the ASU baseball team, threw out the first pitch Saturday night.
Barry Bonds, pictured here meeting the ASU baseball team, threw out the first pitch Saturday night.
(Danny Shapiro/House of Sparky)

In Seattle, when it rains, it pours.

That phrase certainly applied Saturday night as Washington scored six runs in the top of the eighth inning to beat ASU 9-3 and even the series.

The Huskies (11-5-1, 1-1 Pac-12) and Sun Devils (9-7, 1-1) were tied after seven innings, but sophomore pitcher/shortstop Jordan Aboites ran into trouble in the eighth, hitting the leadoff batter.

Sophomore third baseman Dalton DiNatale made errors on the next two Husky hitters, his first two errors of the season, loading the bases for sophomore outfielder Braden Bishop, who drove in all three runners with a triple to left field.

The Huskies added three more runs in the eighth, an inning Sun Devil coach Tim Esmay was indicative of the entire game.

"That eighth inning is exactly how we played the whole game," Esmay said. "To put it in a nutshell, that's exactly how we played the whole game."

The game was tight in the early innings, with the Huskies scoring the only run in the first three innings-a one-out double by junior outfielder Robert Pehl in the first inning.

The Sun Devils struck back with three runs in the fourth off Huskies' junior pitcher Tyler Davis, highlighted by an RBI single from freshman second baseman David Greer.

Other than the fourth, the Sun Devils were unable to put runs up on the board and stretch the lead and put the Huskies away.

"I thought we let them hang around and we didn't engage and push the envelope tonight," Esmay said.

Hanging around is exactly what the Huskies did, scoring a run in the fifth off Sun Devil sophomore pitcher Ryan Kellogg and the tying run in the seventh off Aboites (1-1) before blowing the game open in the eighth.

Esmay was disappointed the Sun Devils fell on 80's Appreciation Night and the return of MLB home run leader Barry Bonds to Packard Stadium.

"We didn't play well," Esmay said. "It started in the beginning. We didn't come out and attack."

The Sun Devils and Huskies play the rubber match of the series tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 p.m.

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