The Sun Devils turned up the heat against the Utes this past Sunday, with Arizona State securing an emphatic 18-6 victory over Utah in their series finale at Smith's Ballpark. According to Utah Utes, the Utes were simply unable to counter ASU’s sizzling bats despite a promising start that saw them take a brief lead in the second inning.
Utah's Austen Roellig, who played second base for the first time this season and was batting leadoff, went 3-for-4 and knocked in two runs, Jake Long and Jack Kleveno added a couple of hits and we saw Kleveno cross the plate twice and nab an RBI, illustrating some fight from the lower end of the batting order, but that effort wasn't nearly enough to match ASU's relentless offensive display. The Utes were still close behind with a marginal 5-4 difference after the fourth inning, however, Arizona State ripped the game wide open in the later innings with a seven-run eighth inning and added insult to injury with a five-run ninth.
The initial innings witnessed a neck-and-neck battle as the Utes answered an ASU sac fly with a run of their own in the first and eventually edged ahead to a 2-1 lead, courtesy of Roellig’s single that brought Kleveno in, detailed by the matchup summary. But ASU quickly reclaimed the lead, and despite a safety squeeze from Santino Panaro and another Roellig single that put Utah up front, it was the Sun Devils who continued to burn brighter as the game progressed.
"Lucas Boesen took the mound in relief of starter Cameron Nielson (2-2), with Boesen tossing 3.1 innings of four-hit, one-run ball with two strikeouts", as noted by Utah Utes, Boesen offered a commendable performance without walking a batter, yet this was overshadowed by Arizona State's formidable 23 total hits that simply outclassed Utah's defensive efforts throughout the nine innings. In what turned out to be a day of heavy hitting and scoreboard fireworks for ASU, the Utes learned a hard lesson in maintaining momentum in a sport where the tide can turn in the blink of an eye, or in this case, the crack of a bat.
