“For these guys to get the opportunity to come out and play in a big ballpark and experience this and see that the ball doesn’t fly as well here as it does at our place, you have to make adjustments and I think the overall experience has been outstanding,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. 

After scoring 36 runs against the Cougars nearly a month ago in a three-game weekend series sweep, the Sun Devils had no answers for BYU’s pitching staff.

Only four Sun Devils registered a hit, and the team did not get a runner into scoring position until the bottom of the eighth inning.

“They did a tremendous job of pitching us backward,” senior infielder Kyle Walker said. “Throwing two dominant lefties with our lefty dominant lineup, they just came with it on their mind today, they made some really good pitches, and held us at bay. Gotta tip your cap to that sometimes.”

BYU only had to use two arms to get through all nine innings. Justin Reiser and Ashton Johnson allowed three hits each, and both struck out a single batter in four and five innings, respectively. They completed the game on a combined 113 pitches. 

Bloomquist said the team swung the bat well despite the results.

“How do you tell them to make adjustments when they’re lining out and squaring up balls?” Bloomquist said. “They swung the bats fine, we didn’t find enough holes today and couldn’t come up with the big hit when we needed it.”

Given the high stakes coming in, Bloomquist started Ben Jacobs, the usual Friday starter, instead of opting to save him for a game later on in the tournament. 

Jacobs had pitched through at least five innings in his last eight games. Wednesday, however, BYU ate a significant amount of pitches from Jacobs’ count, knocking him out of the game after just 4⅓ innings. 

Nearly half of the 20 Cougar batters that Jacobs faced drew five or more pitches, despite Jacobs only giving up two bases on balls. 

He finished his day with seven total base runners allowed, being responsible for both of BYU’s runs. 

Jacobs left in line for the loss despite allowing just the two runs. Arizona State’s offense managed to put up only two baserunners through those first four innings, both stand-alone singles. 

Cole Carlon came in on relief, going an inning and two-thirds without allowing a ball in play until his final pitch. He did, however, show rare control issues as he walked five batters, one scoring a run that was credited to Jacobs. 

Carlon had walked no more than two batters in a single outing the whole year, with a number of those outings exceeding three innings. 

Sean Fitzpatrick and Jonah Giblin combined to finish out the game, throwing three scoreless frames with Giblin racking up seven strikeouts. 

The Sun Devils will now have to sit back and wait until Monday to see if their season will continue or if they have played their last game in the 2025 season. 

The combination of the sweep in Stillwater and the early departure from the Big 12 tournament created a serious dent in the odds that Arizona State would be selected to participate in the NCAA Tournament. 

“They’ve been battling all year long, and my gut tells me this isn’t the end for us,” Bloomquist said. “Obviously, in the Big 12 tournament it is, but hopefully beyond we get an opportunity to keep playing.” 

Of ASU’s 22 losses, 14 of them came in the first game of a series or a single-game set, like Wednesday against BYU. Given the opportunity, Bloomquist believes his team will rebound nicely and make noise, given a chance in the tournament.

“All that matters is that we get placed in a regional and we gotta win a region, figure out who we’re playing against and try and win that first game and get back to our winning ways,” Bloomquist said. “We came up short on our last handful of games by a pitch or two, and every game throughout the year has been down to the wire, but we haven’t come out on the winning end.”