Friday night’s close contest carried into the first two and a half innings of Saturday afternoon’s game. After the two teams traded blows in the boxscore to that point, Arizona State (33-18, 17-9 Big 12) landed a haymaker, five runs in the third inning, and never looked back in a 13-3 victory over Houston (28-21, 11-14).
Brandon Compton got the scoring going, hitting a two-run homer following a Kien Vu base knock to give Arizona State the lead. The towering fly ball flew straight into the wind, and combined with the near-triple-digit temperatures, it carried.
Isaiah Jackson followed with a solo home run of his own, and a Landon Hairston two-run single capped the rally.
Given the back-and-forth start to the game, Martinez struggled to pitch deep, as he was taken out after just four innings at 92 pitches.
“I think he would admit he probably hasn't had his best stuff the past couple of outings, but you know, he's a senior. He knows what he's doing out there. He stays under control, doesn't get too rattled, and he's done a pretty good job of writing the ship when he needs to,” Arizona State head coach Willie Bloomquist said.
It was Martinez’s shortest outing since his start in Salt Lake City against Utah at the end of March. Only two of the runs he allowed were earned, but his four strikeouts were the lowest total of the season so far.
Nevertheless, the team has moved to 10-3 in games that Martinez started.
Jaden Alba came in on relief, his third outing since being taken out of the Sunday starter spot he began the year in.
Bloomquist has been using Alba as a long reliever, which has seemed to work well to this point, as Alba now owns a 1.80 ERA in his 10 innings of relief so far in 2025.
“I know he obviously probably wants to start, but right now, with this team, it's all about just winning one game at a time, and it's all hands on deck every day, the best arms available need to be ready to go at any point in time,” Bloomquist said.
Alba got through three scoreless innings, likely getting even further if it weren’t for the four walks he surrendered, bloating his pitch count to 67.
Kyle Walker was another Sun Devil with an incredible performance, going 3-5 with all three of those hits being for extra bases. His two-run homer in the sixth inning went 414 feet down the left field line.
Following a night where the top three batters in the Arizona State lineup combined for a 0-12 performance, the Walker-Hairston-Matt King trio combined for 12 total bases, got on base seven times, and drove in six of Arizona State’s 13 runs.
“Hopefully we can limit the amount of adversity to have to bounce back from, but when you do have it, these guys do a good job bouncing back,” Bloomquist said.
Arizona State will look to take the series Sunday at 1 p.m. Neither team has announced an official starter.