ASU bats fail in 8-4 loss to UCLA despite Jacob Tobias heroics

Head coach Willie Bloomquist gave the starting nod to freshman left-hander Easton Barrett, who only pitched .1 inning this season. The result was rocky, but not solely because of Barrett. In 2.0 IP, he only allowed two hits and struck out two Bruins batters. Regardless, Barrett allowed four runs because of a defensive collapse in the second inning.

Barrett did walk the first batter but got the next hitter out and faced junior outfielder Jared Hocking, who looked to be the second out of the inning when a ball rolled to Tobias. However, a bobble of the ball allowed Hocking to arrive safely at first, which opened the floodgates.

An RBI SAC bunt and single gave the Bruins the lead, but a two-run moonshot by sophomore outfielder Dean West deflated Barrett and the Sun Devils.

Tobias made up for his costly error by being the shining light for ASU’s offense, getting the scoring started early in the clean-up spot with an RBI single in the first. Then, after the nightmare second, Tobias responded immediately with a blinding two-run RBI double to cut the deficit to one. Tuesday was Tobias’ first two-plus hit game of the year, extending his hit streak to six games.

Bloomquist went to sophomore right-hander Rohan Lettow after Barrett, and UCLA jumped on him. Tobias’ work at the plate would be erased in the fourth inning, when Lettow would quickly load the bases for a grand slam to Chandler, Arizona native sophomore infielder Roch Cholowsky that ballooned the Bruins lead, 8-3.

Tobias tried to will his team on his back with a homer in the sixth inning. However, the senior first baseman was the only Sun Devil batter finding any success against the stellar pitching of the Bruins. UCLA held ASU to two hits outside of Tobias and struck out eight batters, utter domination in its 8-4 win.

ASU has its chance at revenge tomorrow when it takes on UCLA in Jackie Robin Stadium at 1 pm, eyeing to split the two-game series.