Sports

They say it’s better to give than to receive but that’s certainly not the case when you’re on the pitcher’s mound.

Arizona State took advantage of gracious Arizona hurlers to beat the Wildcats by a score of 7-5 Tuesday night in a four-hour-plus baseball game at Hi Corbett Field.

The UA had leads of 3-0 after one inning and 5-4 after the fifth but it wasn’t enough on a Tucson night when the home team allowed eight bases on balls and hit five other batters.

The Sun Devils produced 10 hits, including Jake Peevyhouse’s solo home run in the third inning, but just three of ASU’s seven runs were driven in with a hit. The winning runs were scored via a wild pitch and bases-loaded walk against UA closer Mathew Troupe in the eighth.

Troupe threw just nine pitches and one strike before being pulled for Augey Bill. It was the second time in five appearances that the sophomore had to be removed from a game after losing contact with the strike zone. Tyger Talley closed out the Apr. 13 win at Washington State.

Arizona State bounced back from its come-from-ahead defeat two weeks ago to even the season series at a game apiece. This year’s bragging rights will be settled May 17-19 in a three-game Pac-12 series in Tempe.

Wildcat Universe hopes the UA pitchers won’t be so nice the next time around.

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Here’s your weekly look at the Pac-12 in the polls:

	BA	CB	NC	PG	US	Avg
OSU	6	5	5	7	5	5.6
Oregon	11	6	6	13	6	8.4
UCLA	9	12	12	10	11	10.8
ASU	8	13	14	8	16	11.8
ARIZONA	–	23	22	–	–	24.6
Stanford	–	22	–	–	25	25.0

BA = Baseball America
CB = Collegiate Baseball
NC = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
PG = Perfect Game
US = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll

Oregon reclaimed its spot as the second-highest ranked Pac team after sweeping Stanford. Not surprisingly, the Cardinal took the biggest tumble, dropping out of two polls and barely hanging on in another.

This week’s series:

Washington (14-28 / 6-12) at #24.6 ARIZONA (28-15 / 9-9)

#25.0 Stanford (23-15 / 9-9) at #11.8 ASU (29-12 / 11-7)
TV: Friday, 7 p.m. Arizona/Pacific Time on ESPNU

Cal (20-23 / 9-12) at #5.6 OSU (34-8 / 14-4)
TV: Saturday, 2 p.m. on Pac-12 Network

#8.4 Oregon (33-10 / 16-5) at WSU (20-20 / 7-11)

Utah (16-23 / 5-16) at #10.8 UCLA (27-13 / 11-7)

TCU (20-23) at USC (16-26 / 8-13)

* * *

The midweek loss to ASU kept the Wildcats one day short of a perfect April at home. The UA’s last loss at Hi Corbett had been Mar. 17, the final game of the Oregon State series.

Now there are just two home series left, wrapped around two road trips. And those away games won’t be easy. Both UCLA and ASU are in the top 10 in a couple polls and looking to lock up regional hosting slots.

The Cats remain on the tournament bubble and need to post a big win total in these final six home games. Washington comes to town this weekend fresh off a series loss against Cal.

The Huskies’ season highlight can be boiled down to a single day. On Apr. 20 UW shockingly swept a double-header from Oregon State. Washington had lost five of six conference games before that and has lost three of four since.

With the final midweek game in the rearview mirror the UA pitchers can get settled into their weekend roles. Starters Konner Wade, James Farris and Tyler Crawford go as deep as they can and relievers Talley, Bill and Troupe close it out. Tyler Hale and Cody Moffett will be available to provide extra righty/lefty options if needed.

When the calendar turns to May the temperatures hit triple digits in Arizona. It gets even hotter in college baseball with tournament bids at stake.

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Scott Terrell is ready for the stretch fun. Follow along on Twitter and Facebook.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 1st, 2013 at 12:20 AM and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: ASU, Baseball, Mathew Troupe, TWIT-Pac. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.