ASU Baseball: Sun Devils miss out on early opportunities, lose at GCU

Arizona State’s (20-12) offense changed over night. After scoring with ease on Tuesday, the bats struggled on Wednesday in the Sun Devils 4-1 loss at Grand Canyon (23-15-1).

The Sun Devils didn’t lack chances. They loaded the bases in the second inning, but shortstop Drew Swift struck out to strand his teammates on a night where he went 0-for-5.

Hunter Jump singled in the lone run in the fourth. However, Sean McLain grounded out on a 3-1 pitch to leave them loaded once again. That was seemingly the last scoring chance for the ASU and the story of the night.

Aside from Nick Cheema’s sixth-inning single, Arizona State had no one else reach base in the game’s final five innings. Hunter Haas did have a nice day at the plate with a pair of hits early in the contest.

Arizona State head coach Tracy Smith mentioned that he’d use anyone available to pitch in the second leg of the home-and-home series and stayed true to his word. Smith used 12 different pitchers against the Lopes on Wednesday.

Other than GCU’s three-run third inning, it went pretty well for the Sun Devils. The Lopes plated an unearned run in the seventh.

Starter Joe Hauser went 2.1 innings before being relieved for Blake Burzell. He struggled, allowing three singles, including both hits that drove in the three runs in the third inning, and only recorded one out.

Brock Peery tossed two scoreless innings and Graham Osman put on a zero in his frame as well. Everyone else was used for less than an inning.

Arizona State starts a four-game trip to Salt Lake City for a conference series at Utah on Friday and a non-conference slate on Monday, April 26.