ASU Baseball: Battle of bullpens favors Sun Devils in extra-inning affair

Bonus baseball

It was 12:04 a.m. local time after a 16-inning game between Arizona State (17-8, 6-4 Pac-12) and Washington (10-15, 2-8) concluded with a 3-2 Sun Devil win on Friday night/Saturday morning.

Arizona State took the late lead in a pretty obscure way. Sam Ferri hit a ball to third baseman Michael Snyder (the third third baseman of the night for UW), who short-hopped a throw to first.

Jack Moss came around to score on the error, giving ASU its first runs since the third inning.

The five-hour and five-minute series opener could have ended sooner. We could flash back to the top of the eighth when ASU struck out back-to-back times with the bases loaded, or when Husky pinch-runner Nick Kresnak was thrown out at home by Kai Murphy in the bottom of the 13th.

Hunter Haas may have delivered the play of the game in the bottom of the 14th though with the bases loaded. He fielded a groundball to his left, stepped on third, and threw across the diamond for an inning-ending double play.

With the exception of Brady Corrigan, who allowed the two Husky runs, the Sun Devil bullpen was stellar. In a combined effort, the ‘pen threw 10 innings, striking out 14 Huskies.

Jared Glenn, who has cemented himself as one of the top arms out of the bullpen, threw the most innings in relief. In his five innings of work (73 pitches), he struck out five and left seven runners on.

Offensively, Arizona State struggled to score after getting on the board first in the top of the second when Ethan Long doubled down the left field line and scored on an RBI single by Hunter Haas. Haas is now tied for team lead in RBIs with 16.

Sean McLain added another run for ASU in the top of the third when he hit a sacrifice fly to center. McLain also tied Andre Ethier for the third longest hitting streak (23 games) in ASU history since 1998, when he singled in the fifth.

On the mound, ASU righty Tyler Thornton had one of his best performances of the season. In his first Friday night start of the season, Thornton went a scoreless six innings, yielding only three hits and striking out six.

The Huskies tied the game up in the bottom of the seventh courtesy of a two RBI single off the bat of Will Simpson. From there, neither team would score until the deciding run came in the top of the 16th.

Washington and Arizona State will play game two of the series in less than 17 hours, since first pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. local time on Saturday night.