Grand slam sparks West Virginia as ASU falls in series decider

There was a softness to the night.

Ninety-four degrees. An Arizona sunset stretching across the sky. Fans leaned back, shoulders loose, conversation drifting easier than the game. Even with No. 22 ASU and No. 17 West Virginia on national television, nothing felt tight.

Through five innings, Kole Klecker kept it that way. The graduate right-hander worked with tempo and ease. Three hits. No earned runs. A 1-0 lead that looked fragile, but never felt it.

Until it did.

A single found grass. Then another. The murmur shifted. ASU pitching coach Jeremy Accardo stepped out, slowing the moment. A walk followed. He returned again. The infield crept in. One pitch from escape.

Klecker got to 2-2. The crowd rose, a low hum building, expecting the same finish. The slider stayed up. Graduate outfielder Sean Smith uncoiled and sent it screaming to right center. The crack split the air. Outfielders turned, then stopped. The ball carried beyond the wall.

Grand slam.

The stadium fell silent, then burst from the West Virginia dugout. A pocket of gold and blue came alive down the line. Moments earlier, it felt like a spring evening. Now it didn’t. The ease was gone. West Virginia led 4-1.

A moment, and a surge of momentum ASU could not recover from. Like Saturday’s loss, it turned into an uphill climb that never leveled out. The Sun Devils finished 3 for 18 with runners on and 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, stalled by a five inning scoreless stretch as West Virginia pitching dictated the game. The four-run sixth broke it open, and two more insurance runs in the next two innings gave the Mountaineers (19-5, 7-2 Big 12) plenty of cushion, as they closed out a 6-2 win over ASU (20-8, 5-4 Big 12) on Sunday to take the series.

It was a jarring finish to what began at a completely different altitude. ASU ran away with a mercy rule win on Friday, but over the final two games, West Virginia Mountaineers baseball was sharper in every phase. The details flipped. The mistakes piled up. The scoreboard followed.

The day opened with another surge, and a familiar name at the center of it. Sophomore outfielder Landon Hairston led off with a solo blast to center, his fourth of the weekend, his 12th home run over the last 15 games, and his 11th RBI of the series. 

“He’s done a great job,” Willie Bloomquist said. “Obviously, he’s kind of on another level right now than everybody else, and kind of in that zone to where you just let him go and do his thing. He’s been playing outstanding.”

He has terrorized West Virginia from the first pitch Friday to the first pitch Sunday. 

Two hit by pitches followed, and ASU had early momentum with traffic on the bases. It disappeared just as quickly. Junior infielder Nu’u Contrades fell behind and chopped a ball into the ground, a double play that erased the threat before it could grow.

The missed chances kept stacking. In the third, graduate outfielder Dean Toigo doubled to open the inning, another chance to extend the lead. With two strikes on Contrades, head coach Willie Bloomquist called for the hit-and-run. Contrades swung through it, and sophomore catcher Gavin Kelly threw out Toigo at third with ease. 

“We have to get better,” Bloomquist said. “There were some blunders on the bases that I take responsibility for. Those are things that we coached, but not coached well enough…But all in all, that’s a very good team over there, but I believe we’re a very good team too, and we just gotta keep grinding and move forward.”

Sophomore infielder Austin Roellig followed with a walk, and moments later, confusion struck again. Junior infielder Garrett Michel thought a pitch hit him, but play continued. Kelly fired behind the runner and caught Roellig trying to advance. Another inning unraveled.

By the sixth, those lost chances carried weight. After the West Virginia grand slam, ASU still found a window. Contrades singled. Michel walked. The tying run was within reach.

It shut fast.

Freshman right-hander David Perez entered with a 0.93 ERA and took control. Junior infielder Dominic Smaldino grounded into a force out, and sophomore catcher Brody Briggs was caught looking. The threat vanished, and with it, ASU’s last real chance was back.

Lost in the swing was how steady Klecker had been. He worked ahead, induced soft contact, and settled into a groove after last weekend. Through five innings, he allowed just three hits and no runs. There were loud outs early, hints of what might come, and in the sixth, those balls began to fall. One after another, the bases filled. With no margin left, a 2-2 slider stayed over the plate, and Smith drove it out to right center.

Four runs felt like ten.

“Up until the sixth, I thought he was still throwing the ball really well,” Bloomquist said. “Just hung a breaking ball to Smith, and he got him with the grand slam. That was kind of the gut punch there. Last few innings, we didn’t put up zeros. Had we done that, we might still be playing.”

West Virginia kept pressing. An RBI single in the seventh in an inning that included three walks from graduate right-handed pitcher Colby Guy added on. In the eighth, senior catcher Matthew Graveline stole home, part of five stolen bases Sunday and a growing issue for ASU after a weekend of pressure on the bases.

Then came the ninth. Three hits and a walk against Derek Schaefer stretched the margin again, West Virginia continuing to find gaps and punish mistakes.

ASU answered late. Dean Toigo launched a three-run home run in the ninth, a final push that brought brief life back into the park.

Too little, too late.

Despite the series loss and the recurring mistakes that have followed ASU at different points this season, Bloomquist still sees a team with more to give. Asked whether he believes the group has reached its ceiling, he didn’t hesitate.

“I do. I know there’s more in there, for sure, and that’s our job to get the maximum out of it,” Bloomquist said. “That’s the benefit of playing really good teams. Not only do you get to face them, you get to see where we stack up, but you also get to learn from it and move forward and hopefully sharpen those things up for the rest of the season. At some point, we hopefully will peak and hit our stride. I think we’re close, but we’re not quite there yet.”