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Later this week, House of Sparky will begin our "#SunDevilMoments" tournament, featuring the 16 best moments from the athletic season. We are currently introducing all 16 seeds before revealing our match-ups where you, the reader, will vote on what was the ASU athletics Moment of the Year.
Needless to say, the Arizona State baseball team needed something, anything, to happen.
Coming into a late-March game against lowly Utah, the Sun Devils had dropped five straight games and were in danger of losing all momentum gained from a surprising 13-3 start to the year.
Then, Ryan Hingst stepped up.
Almost out of nowhere, the sophomore right-hander pieced together one of the greatest pitching performances in program history, methodically making his way through the Ute lineup time and again. He hit one batter and allowed two others to reach via walks, but when center fielder Andrew Shaps camped under the 27th and final out of the night, it was official.
Hingst had thrown the 10th no-hitter in Arizona State history.
The final out of Arizona State's Ryan Hingst's no-hitter. This is March. pic.twitter.com/4cKugb8atJ
— Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) March 26, 2016
It took the righty 121 pitches to complete the game, which, as head coach Tracy Smith put it after, was right where his limit was.
"121 (pitches) is what we set it at," joked Smith. "Thank God he got him on that last pitch, because we were going to take him out."
The no-hitter was the first since 2013, when Ryan Kellogg accomplished the same feat against Oregon State.
As the season progressed, Hingst's act proved to be even more impressive. While Utah was just 7-13 at the time, the team would go on to win the Pac-12 and take the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The no-hitter also seemed to spark the Sun Devils, who went on to win seven of their next eight series. Smith's young team ended up earning a No. 2 seed into the NCAA Tournament, eventually advancing to the Fort Worth Regional final before falling to host TCU.
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We saw Hingst's no-no as the third best moment from the ASU athletic season, however, it will be up the readers to see how far it goes in our #SunDevilMoments bracket.