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Next week House of Sparky will begin our #SunDevilMoments tournament, with the 16 best moments from the ASU athletic season. This week will randomly introduce all 16 moments, then reveal our seedings and match-ups next week, where you, the reader, will vote on what was the ASU athletics Moment of the Year.
If you're looking for moments, there aren't many that were quite as shockingly impressive as what Johhny Sewald gave us on May 16th.
In the rubber game of a three-game series with Washington State, ASU held a 5-3 lead over the Cougars, and came up to bat in the bottom of the sixth looking to put the game out of reach. The Sun Devils put men on the corners, and sent Sewald up to bat with two outs aiming for an insurance run.
And then, it happened.
And just like that, Sewald had achieved unintentional "badassery". The ball was coming at him at high speed and Sewald just, you know, caught it in his friken elbow. Oh, and then he casually tossed it back to the Washington State pitcher as if to say "Here's the ball back, congrats on loading the bases."
The world stopped and took a minute to try and process exactly what it had just witnessed. ASU didn't add any more runs in the inning, but won the game in extra innings and won the Internet the day after.
Deadspin posted a video of the occurrence, then ESPN showed it on Sportscenter, and before he knew it Sewald had become the water-cooler talk of college baseball.
The Pac-12 Network announcers' reaction to Sewald's catch was almost as interesting as the hit by pitch itself, and the video and tale of Sewald's exploits made its way into viral lore. The win over a mediocre opponent in a low-consequence regular season game won't be remembered for long, but Sewald's moment will be, and that's why it's in contention for the Moment of the Year.
We saw this strange, yet awesome moment as the No. 9 moment of the ASU athletic year. However, it is up to the readers to determine how far this moment will go in our bracket starting next week.