ASU Baseball: Sun Devils drop finale to SDSU, leave with series-win

In its fifth game in six days, ASU baseball (5-7) dropped the series finale to San Diego State (4-8) 4-3 on Sunday afternoon.

Boyd Vander Kooi took the ball for his first start in almost two years after undergoing Tommy John Surgery last year. Pitching coach Sam Peraza and head coach Willie Bloomquist continue to slowly ramp up Vander Kooi by easing him into deeper pitch counts. On Sunday, he recorded five outs.

Danny Marshall picked up the loss after an SDSU RBI single to break a 3-3 tie in the sixth, but the difference in Sunday’s game was the lackadaisical fielding. Vander Kooi was not expected to go deep into his start, but three first-inning errors plated three runs (two unearned) in the first inning, and shortened his outing even further.

A clean first inning likely would have won the Sun Devils the game.

Nate Baez (single) and Ivan Brethowr (sac-fly) contributed the first two RBI of the game. In five games played, Brethowr has five RBI.

Joe Lampe continued his scorched-earth tour, launching his fourth homer of the year, a solo shot to right that tied things up at 3-3, before SDSU scored the winning run in the next inning.

The SDSU series wraps up the busiest week of the season so far for ASU, but things do not slow down this week. The Sun Devils head to UC Irvine for a midweek two-game series in Irvine starting Tuesday. This weekend, San Francisco comes to Phoenix Municipal Stadium for a four-game series, including a double-header on Saturday.