ASU Baseball: Sun Devils drop Friday opener at Washington

On a Friday night in Seattle, No. 15 Arizona State (31-9, 12-7 Pac-12) wasn’t able to secure a victory in the team’s opening game against Washington (19-17, 6-10 Pac-12).

The Sun Devils fell 10-6 in an offensive affair in the Northwest. Washington dropped nine runs in the first two innings against ASU starter Alec Marsh, and the Huskies early offense was able to give them a push the rest of the way.

The Huskies out hit ASU 13-10 and Marsh was chased from the game after two frames and 65 pitches. With the bullpen in early use, ASU had to throw out four different arms to go the full nine innings.

The bullpen was stellar in picking up Marsh and giving the Devils’ offense a chance to come back. Between freshman Will Levine, junior Chaz Montoya, freshman Luke La Flam, and freshman Blake Burzell, the pen was able to hold things down. The only other run scored by the Huskies came all the way in the eighth inning against La Flam.

As for ASU’s offensive output, the Devils scored two runs in the second inning and four runs in the fourth to trim Washington’s lead down to a 9-6 game through the later innings.

Spencer Torkelson, Lyle Lin, Trevor Hauver, and Alika Williams all had two-hit nights and the offense fired in spurts at certain points throughout the game.

Torkelson hit a two-run blast in the fourth, while Hauver and Lin accounted for the other two ASU RBI’s.

On the mound for Washington, they used three different pitchers to secure the victory. Freshman David Rhodes, junior Chris Micheles, and sophomore Stevie Emanuels combined for the win in somewhat of a committee effort.

Rhodes couldn’t escape the ASU bats in the fourth and had two give way to his two counterparts to back him up.

Ultimately, Washington’s early offense put ASU in a hole and the Sun Devils just couldn’t recover. For an arm who has been as dominant as Marsh, Friday was one of the few blemishes he has had on an otherwise standout junior campaign.

ASU will now have to bounce back and take two straight games to try and secure a series win. Game two against Washington is at 2:05 p.m. local time tomorrow afternoon.