It wasn’t 100-0, but it still feels good to beat the team up north.
Arizona got home runs from a trio of in-state products and a team effort from the bullpen in a 5-3 nonconference win at ASU on Tuesday night, evening the season series at two games each. ASU had taken two of three from the Wildcats in Tucson in mid-March.
Home runs from TJ Adams and Mason White in the top of the 3rd and from Andrew Cain in the 4th gave Arizona (30-17) a 4-0 lead that would hold up against an ASU team that was averaging more than seven runs per game and scored 21 in its last contest.
Adams was 3 for 4 including his first career homer, a solo shot to open the scoring. Two batter later White hit his 15th of the year, a 2-run shot for a 3-0 lead, then Cain opened the 4th with a solo homer.
White’s homer drew a particularly notable reaction from an ASU player who was being interviewed at the time.
NO DOUBTER
Mason White crushes a 2-run home run! pic.twitter.com/QmjWSxGgak
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) May 8, 2024
Cain was also 3 for 4, while White was 2 for 5.
Arizona added an insurance run in the 7th on a sacrifice fly by Brendan Summerhill, who reached base three times.
The UA used nine relievers to limit the Sun Devils to their fewest runs in almost month and the second-fewest at home this season. ASU had plenty of chances, getting 11 hits and 13 baserunners, but for the most part Arizona’s pitchers worked out of jams.
Dawson Netz faced second and third with one out in the second when he fielded a tapper and chased down an ASU runner who broke toward home. In the 4th Jaeden Swanberg loaded the bases with three straight 1-out singles and then was pulled after hitting a batter to get ASU on the board, but Casey Hintz made quick work of the situation by inducing a 1-2-3 double play on his first pitch.
Hintz would get another inning-ending double play in the 5th after giving up a single and a walk with one out. He was credited with the win, moving to 3-1.
ASU scored on a 2-out double off Matthew Martinez in the 8th and Anthony ‘Tonko’ Susac allowed a solo home run to pinch hitter Eamonn Lance—the first run he’s allowed in 10 appearances since getting moved to the pen—to open the 9th but then followed with three straight outs to record his second save.
Susac has lowered his ERA from 10.29 to 6.38 over the past five weeks.
Arizona continues its final road trip of the regular season Friday at Utah with first place in the Pac-12 on the line. The Wildcats are 17-7 in the conference, two games ahead of the Utes.