ASU rebounds from mercy-rule loss to claim series over BYU

The night in Provo felt like the breaking point, but it had been building long before first pitch. 

Over the past two weeks, the margins thinned, the mistakes piled up, and the rhythm that once carried Arizona State started to slip. Close games turned the wrong way, Quad 4 losses stacked up, and a 6-7 stretch over the last 13 slowly reshaped the tone of a season that once felt steady. By the time the 19-9 mercy rule loss last Thursday was final, it was less a shock and more a reflection of everything that had been trending in the wrong direction.

The response outside the dugout was immediate. Frustration turned into panic, and panic into questions about where this once promising season was heading. The noise built quickly, louder with every result, each loss adding to the echo.

Inside, it never followed.

There was no panic in ASU’s dugout, no sense of a team slipping. Just experience, steady and unshaken, and the understanding that a weekend can turn as fast as it falls apart.

Friday became the answer, five runs in the second inning cracking the game open and five more in the seventh closing it, a 13-0 mercy rule win that flipped the script and forced a deciding Saturday. The finale did not come easy, as six early runs allowed by senior right-hander Kole Klecker put ASU on its heels, the kind of start that could have carried over from the night before, but it didn’t. A six-run fourth inning swung everything back, the dugout coming alive as the deficit disappeared, and by the seventh, three more runs created separation as the bullpen took over, holding BYU scoreless the rest of the way in a 12-8 win that turned the lowest point of the season into a series victory in two days.

Even in a series that ended on a high note, the opening told a different story. ASU entered Thursday off its second straight midweek loss, searching for traction, and ran into a BYU lineup that offered none.

Sophomore left-hander Easton Barrett drew the start with the series moved up a day, his first weekend assignment since Feb. 22. The move raised eyebrows. Barrett had worked primarily midweeks and entered off a start against Grand Canyon in which he allowed six earned runs in 1 1/3 innings.

Thursday followed a similar script. Barrett did not escape the first inning, issuing three walks and allowing three hits that led to three runs before junior right-hander Jaden Alba took over with two outs.

Alba could not slow it. After a scoreless second, BYU scored four, then three, then five over the next three innings. Nine of those runs were charged to Alba, who allowed eight hits and three walks. With the game out of reach, head coach Willie Bloomquist let him absorb the innings to preserve the bullpen for the rest of the weekend.

The struggles continued behind him. Senior Nick Anello and junior Josh Butler combined to allow seven runs in 1 2/3 innings. No pitcher found an answer, and the scoreboard reflected it.

The offense produced, but not enough to matter. ASU scored in every inning, but the first, and a four-run seventh inning narrowed the final margin. Graduate outfielder Matt Polk collected four hits, including a late home run, but the Sun Devils finished 4 for 20 with runners in scoring position.

The response came a day later.

Junior left-hander Cole Carlon, coming off a career-worst outing against Utah, took the ball, needing a reset for himself and his team. He delivered it.

Carlon worked six innings, allowing three hits and striking out 11 without issuing a walk. His fastball touched 100 mph for the first time this season, and he controlled the game from the start, giving ASU the stability it lacked a day earlier.

The offense followed. Thirteen hits, nine walks, and steady pressure produced five runs in the second inning and five more in the seventh. Sophomore catcher Brody Briggs homered, four doubles added depth, and BYU cycled through pitchers without relief. Three allowed at least three runs, and the final two combined to record one out as ASU rolled to a 13-0 win.

That set the stage for a fourth straight weekend rubber match, with ASU having won the previous two and chasing a third.

By the third inning Saturday, it looked like that momentum might disappear.

Klecker, coming off a seven-inning, one-run outing against Utah, returned to a season defined by swings. On March 15 against TCU, he threw seven scoreless innings and allowed two hits. A week later against Kansas State, he gave up nine earned runs in 4 2/3 innings.

The volatility showed early. Klecker allowed three home runs, two to the first three batters he faced and another in the second inning, a three-run shot that deepened the deficit. When junior right-hander Alex Overbay surrendered another run, ASU trailed by seven in the third.

It was a familiar position. Just weeks earlier, the Sun Devils erased a seven-run deficit at Grand Canyon.

They did it again.

The fourth inning changed everything. Six hits, including five straight, fueled a six-run surge capped by junior infielder Nu’u Contrades’ bases-clearing double. The deficit shrank to one, and the momentum flipped.

ASU did not give it back. Junior infielder Beckett Zavorek drove an opposite-field RBI double to right-center in the fifth, part of a three-hit day that included two doubles. In the seventh, sophomore outfielder Ky McGary tripled to open a three-run inning, and junior infielder PJ Moutzouridis followed with a go-ahead double to make it 9-8.

The bullpen finished it. Junior right-handers Colin Linder and Derek Schaefer, along with senior left-hander Sean Fitzpatrick, combined for five scoreless innings and 10 strikeouts.

What began as a collapse ended as a response. ASU turned its lowest moment into another series win, 12-8, the final after some further insurance, steadying a season that, for now, found its footing again.