ASU Baseball: Sun Devil bats held quiet in Saturday loss to USC

On Friday night, the Sun Devils used the sixth inning to put them ahead of USC. On Saturday afternoon, it was the Trojans who used the sixth to gain some separation from Arizona State (31-17, 15-11 Pac-12) in their 6-1 victory.

Already leading 2-1, USC put up three runs in the bottom half of the sixth and pretty much sealed ASU’s fate. The Trojan offense as a whole totaled 12 hits and had at least one base knock in every inning they batted.

Outfielder Trevor Halsema made his first start of the season for USC and did not disappoint, going 3-4 with two doubles, an RBI and two runs scored.

Justin Fall got the start for the Sun Devils coming off of back-to-back outings of seven innings or more. However Fall only went 5.2 innings on Saturday, yielding five runs on a season-high 10 hits.

The lone run for the Sun Devils came on an RBI double from Kade Higgins in the second inning, scoring Jack Moss. Higgins would get an opportunity to drive in some more runs in the top of the ninth with the bases loaded, but struck out in a six-pitch at-bat.

Trojan starter Chandler Champlain did a stellar job of limiting an ASU lineup that has been red-hot in the month of May. The redshirt sophomore threw 6.1 innings and only allowed the one run and four hits, while striking out seven Sun Devils.

Over the course of the last three innings, Arizona State tried to rally but ended up stranding five runners without scoring a run. In total, the Sun Devil offense only had five hits on the day.

The rubber match is set for Sunday afternoon at 12 p.m. local time in Los Angeles. ASU will be seeking its 12th series win of the season.