Head Coach Willie Bloomquist‘s squad had the right formula early, holding down the Houston offense behind the effort of left-hander Ben Jacobs. A Josiah Cromwick home run in the second followed up by a two-out rally that produced three runs in the fourth led to a 4-1 advantage for Arizona State through five.
Houston mounted a rally, all of which took place in a game-deciding sixth inning. The Cougars finally manufactured runs off of Ben Jacobs and reliever Lucas Kelly, ultimately scoring five runs to take a 6-4 lead. Enter Houston star reliever left-hander Antoine Jean, who has emerged as one of the elite pitchers in the nation. He worked the final four innings, holding ASU to only one run to close out a 6-5 Cougar victory.
The 2005 Sun Devil Baseball team was honored pre-game and star outfielder Jeff Larish threw out the first pitch on his bobblehead night. ASU’s senior class was also recognized prior to the game.
The same two teams meet tomorrow night in a 1 PM MST matchup that will be broadcasted on ESPN+
TURNING POINT
ASU came within about five feet of blowing the game open in the fourth inning as Kyle Walker smoked a ball to the warning track in dead center with two men on base. The ball was caught harmlessly at the wall, however, stranding two and keeping Houston within striking distance at 4-1.
BIG MOMENT
The wheels came off for the Sun Devils in the top of the sixth inning as Jacobs allowed the bases to get loaded with no outs and without a ball leaving the infield. The southpaw picked up a strikeout but walked in a run on the next batter he faced to allow Houston to get back within 4-2. Reliever Lucas Kelly walked the first batter he faced for another run and Houston would then take the lead on the lone ball that left in infield in the inning a – a two-RBI single to make it 5-4 followed by an infield single that plated another run.
FINAL STRAW
ASU made things interesting against likely All-American reliever Antoine Jean in the ninth inning, squaring him up to the tune of three hits and get back within a run on Isaiah Jackson’s two-out RBI single to make it 6-5 and move the tying run to third. Jackson stole second to put the winning run in scoring position. Kyle Walker smoked yet another ball at 101 MPH off the bat but it went directly to the Cougar shortstop, who threw Walker out at first to seal the win.
INNING BY INNING
First Inning
Ben Jacobs set the tone early and often. The southpaw punched out all three batters to send the Cougars down quickly.
The Sun Devil offense also went down in 1-2-3 fashion. Starting pitchers on both sides headlined the initial frame with goose eggs across the board.
Second Inning
Jacobs remained steady on the bump, recording two groundouts and another strikeout to keep the Houston bats quiet early.
Jacob Tobias and Kien Vu led things off in the second with a pair of groundouts. With two-outs, Josiah Cromwick stayed red hot and lifted a solo home run into the visitors bullpen. The 12th Crom-bomb of the season flew 383 feet to give ASU the 1-0 advantage.
Third Inning
Jacobs issued his first base runner of the evening after plunking Houston’s eight-hole hitter. More trouble followed as Houston tacked on a base knock and advanced runners to second and third on a wild pitch. Houston’s first run would cross the plate on a passed ball, to nod it up 1-1. A foul out shortly after ended the third with the game score reset.
The duo of Jax Ryan and Isaiah Jackson punched back with a leadoff knock and walk, respectively. Kyle Walker came just feet short of a three-run bomb after a warning track flyout. Landon Hairston then rolled into a tailor-made double play to quickly erase the potential threat.
Fourth Inning
Jacobs settled back in, as he collected a pair of strikeouts and a quick ground out to get his defense off the field.
Matt King drew a leadoff walk and the offense was able to capitalize. Tobias went station-to-station on a great piece of opposite field hitting. Vu smoked a single back up the middle to plate King and make it 2-1. That would mark the end of the line for Houston starter Chris Scinta, as the Cougars turned to the ‘pen. Back-to-back strikeouts shifted momentum back to the visitors, but Jax Ryan thought otherwise and added his second base hit of the evening, this time scoring Tobias and pushing the lead to 3-1. Vu would then come around on a wild pitch to make it 4-1 as the inning concluded shortly after with the Sun Devils ahead by three.
Fifth Inning
Jacobs found himself in trouble after issuing back-to-back leadoff walks. He responded with a crucial first out on a brilliantly executed pitcher’s fielding play, cutting down a Houston runner trying to take third. Moments later, Cromwick came up big as he threw out another runner at third on a steal attempt. With two outs and momentum shifting, Jacobs capped off the inning with a strikeout, letting out an emotional sigh of relief as he walked off the mound.
The trio of Hairston-King-Tobias went down in 1-2-3 fashion again after two groundouts and a fly out.
Sixth Inning
The Cougars applied pressure early on to kick off the sixth, loading up the bases with zero outs. Jacobs was able to strikeout the next batter but another walk followed, advancing the runner home to bring the Sun Devils deficit to within two. Lucas Kelly was called upon from the bullpen to relieve Jacobs from his outing. Houston managed to advance another runner home by way-of-walk, which was soon followed by a two-RBI single to take the lead. A single reached second base, bringing in yet another runner for the Cougars. Kelly stayed the course and closed the frame with no more further damage, leaving the Sun Devils trailing 6-4.
Arizona State’s offense couldn’t get anything going, ultimately retiring in order all by way of the strikeout.
Seventh Inning
Jonah Giblin took over and made his presence felt, working a 10-pitch inning while adding two strikeouts.
Isaiah Jackson added the Sun Devils first hit since the fourth inning, but was later thrown out at second base trying to swipe the bag. ASU remained behind 6-4 as the seventh closed.
Eighth Inning
Giblin returned to action and started off where he left off, picking up another strikeout on only a 12-pitch inning.
The Sun Devils were not able to make an impact on the offensive side, falling in a 1-2-3 manner.
Ninth Inning
After the Cougars were able to connect on a single, Giblin stood his ground and retired the following order in a 1-2-3 fashion manner and passed the torch to the offense.
Kien Vu was the lead-off-man and got things going for the offense with a single to right field. Brandon Compton connected on the fourth pitch for a single, ultimately leaving the corners occupied in prime position. With two outs, Isaiah Jackson was the next man up and delivered with an RBI single, bringing ASU’s deficit to within one. With third and second occupied, Kyle Walker grounded out, ending the ballgame with the Sun Devils falling short, 6-5.
Head Coach Willie Bloomquist
Opening Statement
On Senior night and the class of 2025’s impact on the program
“It was a neat moment for those guys and a neat moment for me. Being around some of these guys for 3-4 years – I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a little bit emotional with a few of those guys. I just love these guys, man. They’re great kids and clearly we’re not perfect, but at the end of the day, the amount of effort that these guys give me every day. They have my back, I got theirs and it’s a pretty special feeling and a bond that you get with these guys, especially when you’re with them for four years. You see what they go through, the adversity they go through, and the resiliency that they have to keep fighting and keep battling. All of a sudden it’s poof, four years and they gotta go after this year. It goes by really fast, but I just really thank them for the memories they’ve given me and hopefully I’ve given them something that they can take with them for the remainder of their lives moving forward. When you look at it in that perspective, it’s why we do what we do as coaches. I think at the end of the day all the noise and all the stuff that’s going on outside these walls really doesn’t matter. It’s the relationships you build with these kids and hopefully the tools you give them to move on, whether it’s in baseball or or a different field for the rest of their life that they can take those tools and be successful and with whatever they do. I bet there’s not a kid in there that’s not going to be successful when they’re out of here. They’re a bunch of great kids. It’s gonna be tough to say goodbye to them, but we’re not done yet.”
On the Big 12 and Houston’s performance
“You see the Big 12 today? Everybody that was supposed to win lost. The records – throw them out the window, they don’t matter. Everybody’s gonna be tough. Anybody can beat anybody. Every underdog tonight except Cincinnati won tonight. You don’t like to lose and you don’t accept it, but at the same token, this is a tough conference, so you don’t look at records, you don’t look at what they’ve done in the past and say, ‘oh well this should be a layup,’ there’s no layups. I don’t care who you’re playing and we knew that going in…These guys have some good arms, they got some guys that can make a mistake in the zone that they’ll burn you. We knew that going in. This was no surprise. We knew that they had Antonie Jean, shoot, that kid’s pretty damn good, and he’s gonna be a big leaguer really soon, in my opinion. They have 3 or 4 or 5 other really good arms too that are mid 90s arms. So it’s like you look at an 11-13 conference record. I say flush that down the toilet, they’re a lot better than that. We’re gonna have to come with our A game and we can’t overlook it, and I’m not saying our guys overlooked it today, we didn’t. I think we’re ready to play. We just had a tough inning there in the 6th and it bit us.”
On Ben Jacobs efforts
Benny was throwing the ball great and I think (he) let the emotions get the best of him there in the 6th inning. Hit batter to lead off the 6th, and that guy was chirping. We’re not trying to hit him. He got Benny out of his game plan and Benny took the bait, so I guess kudos to him for getting him out of his game plan. But, Benny’s got to be better than that and control his emotions better than that and keep attacking the strike zone.”
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Danny Sullivan and Zach Romesburg
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