ASU Baseball Loses Big 12 Tournament Opener

The Arizona State baseball program has officially entered NCAA tournament season on shaky grounds after falling victim to an upset on Wednesday morning.

The Sun Devils fell in the opening contest of the Big 12 tournament to the 27-26 Brigham Young Cougars by a score of 2-0.

BYU got on the board with a single in the second inning, while adding on another run in the fifth via a bases-loaded walk - Arizona State was able to manage to keep the game from getting out of control by striking out Keoni Painter.

BYU once again loaded the bases in inning six, but the Sun Devils were able to hold strong once again and prevent any extra runs from scoring.

The Cougars rallied again in the seventh inning - but the same story came to fruition once again, as the Sun Devils were able to prevent more runs from coming across the plate.

ASU started a rally in the eighth inning, but a Landon Hariston flyout to left field left two on base ahead of the ninth inning.

The Arizona State offense failed to capitalize on another baserunner in the ninth inning, and the team will head back to Tempe after just one game.

As the final score may indicate, the entire Sun Devil offense went ice-cold in this contest - while they only struck out twice and mustered six hits, much of the damage that was done ended up being backed up with softly hit fly balls. ASU did not earn a single walk across nine innings either.

The pitching staff compounded the offensive struggles, as BYU was walked eight times. Four separate pitchers were used - to their credit, all of them held up relatively well and ended up striking out 18 Cougars to balance out the excessive walks being issued. Ultimately, the command issues and poor offensive showing were just enough for BYU to sneak out with a victory.

While many consider the Sun Devils to be a 'lock' to be an at-large selection to the NCAA tournament, many of the metrics point towards the Willie Bloomquist coached team being on the bubble.

It could be a long few days for the program after dropping four in a row to close the season between Oklahoma State and now BYU.

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