ASU Baseball: Sun Devils swept by No. 7 Texas A&M, fall to No. 5 TCU in Kubota College Baseball Series

Arizona State lost three games in the 2024 Kubota College Baseball Series

ARLINGTON, Texas — The once mighty Arizona State Sun Devils (5-6) got a taste of what championship caliber teams look like, and were swiftly brought down to reality by the pair of undefeated top-10 programs over the weekend. Arizona State was at the mercy of No. 7 Texas A&M (twice) and No. 5 TCU in the 2024 Kubota College Baseball Series, played at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

Averaging just shy of 10 runs per game, the upper echelon of Texas A&M and TCU were enough to stifle the Arizona State bats. Now sitting 5-6, below .500 for the first time this season, coach Willie Bloomquist is steadfast his team is in the right direction.

Friday: Arizona State 0, No. 7 Texas A&M 4

Despite holding the seventh-ranked Aggies to six scoreless innings, just four hits and four runs, the Sun Devil offense mustered only two hits, courtesy of Ethan Mendoza, and a goose egg on the scoreboard. The Sun Devils struck out 12 times and had four batters with more than two a piece.

Freshman right-handed pitcher Thomas Burns struggled on the mound, walking the first two hitters. He then proceeded to serve a three-run home run to left-center field off the bat of junior DH Braden Montgomery.

Montgomery, the No. 14 MLB Draft prospect , according to D1Baseball.com, gave the Sun Devils bullpen fits. Burns was off his mark, which led to six walks and one batter pelted. The Aggies tagged Burns for another homer, the fourth and final run of the game in the bottom of the third inning.

Burns threw four innings and allowed four runs on three hits with six walks and six strikeouts on 100 pitches.

The Aggies starter, sophomore left-handed pitcher Ryan Prager, continued his scoreless innings streak to begin the season by tossing five innings Friday night. Prager struck out eight Sun Devils and allowed only one hit, a double off the bat of freshman second baseman Ethan Mendoza in the third inning.

Mendoza was the only Arizona State hitter to record a hit, going 2-3 with a double and a single. Mendoza is also only one of two hitters all year to record an extra-base hit off Prager, who’s only surrendered two across 16 and two-thirds innings of work this season.

A quiet game offensively for both sides as No. 7 Texas A&M only had four hits total as junior right-handed pitcher Ryan Schiefer and sophomore left-handed pitcher Sean Fitzpatrick threw the remaining six innings and allowed one hit, one walk and struck out one.

Saturday: No. 5 TCU 11, Arizona State 9

In Saturday night’s affair, the Sun Devils fought back-and-forth with the Horned Frogs, a proven Omaha caliber opponent, eventually squandering a five-run eighth inning to take the lead by giving it right back.

The first three innings of the affair were scoreless until the Horned Frogs broke the seal with two runs in the fourth and three runs in the fifth inning off ASU’s starter, senior left-handed pitcher Connor Markl.

The Sun Devils responded with one run in the sixth inning from a sacrifice-fly from junior first-basemen Jacob Tobias, scoring sophomore right-fielder Nick McLain who made his return to the lineup this past weekend.

The big inning for ASU didn’t come until the bottom half of the seventh. Arizona State plated six runs on seven hits, cashing in with runners in scoring position.

RBI singles from senior left-fielder Harris Williams, senior third-basemen Kevin Karstetter and McLain scored four runs and an two-RBI-double from junior catcher Ryan Campos gave the Sun Devils a 7-5 lead after the seventh inning stretch.

The ASU lead was short lived.

In the top of the eighth inning, No. 5 TCU showed their prowess in big games and took the lead 11-7 and scored 6 runs to respond. The shut-down inning the Devils looked for did not come as the game opened up. The Horned Frogs had five hits and scored six runs mixed in with a costly Arizona State error in the field.

ASU did make things interesting in the ninth inning when they scored two runs thanks to an RBI-single from Karstetter and a wild pitch but didn’t have another hit in the bats to produce any more runs.

Sunday: No. 7 Texas A&M 10, Arizona State 5

All of No. 7 Texas A&M’s runs came in the first three innings when they scored three runs in the first, four runs in the second and three more runs in the third inning. Innings four through nine, the Aggies had only three hits.

Arizona State sophomore right-handed pitcher Tyler Myer and junior left-handed pitcher Matt Cornelius both threw one and one-third innings and gave up the ten runs. Meyer had six walks.

The bats couldn’t make up ground despite having double digit hits in the final game of the three-game set.

ASU’s rally came late with run-producing innings in the eighth and ninth.