Sun Devils drop 14-Inning thriller, fall 7-6 to Ole Miss in regional opener

Back on March 1, after a weekend in Arlington, Texas, where ASU was swept in the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series and a midweek loss to Oklahoma made it four straight losses to SEC competition, head coach Willie Bloomquist was blunt in his assessment of the Sun Devils.

“We’re not there yet.”

The talent was there. The pieces were there. But ASU had not put it together.

Three months later, on the opening day of the NCAA Tournament, the Sun Devils found themselves back where that conversation started: across the diamond from an SEC opponent. A chance to prove how much they had grown. A chance to show this talented roster had finally arrived.

14 innings later, it still feels like they haven’t.

In one of the cruelest losses of the season, ASU came within a few outs of taking control of the regional before watching it slip away. In a tournament built to test depth and resilience, the Sun Devils needed 14 innings and nearly five hours only to end up in the loser’s bracket anyway. Fewer than 13 hours after the final out, they face an elimination game.

Junior infielder Nu’u Contrades did everything he could, launching two home runs in his postseason debut. ASU’s pitching staff held Ole Miss scoreless from the fifth through the 13th inning, while junior right-hander Jaden Alba delivered four innings of relief, allowing one run and striking out five. But when ASU needed one more hit, the bats went silent. The Sun Devils went scoreless over the final seven innings before Ole Miss finally broke through at 1:18 a.m. local time. The Rebels walked it off in the 14th inning, handing ASU a gut-punch 7-6 loss and pushing its season to the brink.

It was a tale of two offenses for ASU.

For seven innings, the Sun Devils looked like the more dangerous lineup. They worked quality at-bats, attacked mistakes and repeatedly found answers against one of the SEC’s better pitching staffs. But as the game wore on, that same offense left a pitching staff that delivered nine consecutive scoreless innings with little support.

Early on, there was plenty to like. ASU faced junior left-hander Hunter Elliott, a veteran of Ole Miss’ 2022 national championship run, and immediately put him on the defensive. Four straight Sun Devils reached to open the game, including an RBI knock from graduate outfielder Dean Toigo and an RBI groundout from junior infielder Austin Roellig. ASU stayed patient, forced Elliott into deep counts and punished strikes.

Contrades continued the pressure in the third inning, launching a solo home run to left field to stretch the lead. Against a pitching staff that entered the regional with the sixth-best ERA in the SEC, runs were never going to come easy.

On the other side, junior left-hander Cole Carlon delivered one of his strangest starts of the season. The stuff was there, but a handful of mistakes proved costly.

Ole Miss has lived on the long ball all season, ranking among the SEC leaders in home runs while sitting near the bottom of the conference in batting average. The Rebels punished three mistakes early. 

Senior infielder Judd Utermark crushed a first-inning solo homer, then Ole Miss turned a tie game into a 6-3 lead with a two-run double and a two-run homer from senior outfielder Tristan Bissetta. The six runs matched the second-highest total Carlon had allowed all season.

That made it feel like ASU’s bats would have to carry the night.

Toigo helped close the gap with his 18th home run of the season before Contrades delivered the biggest swing of the game in the seventh. Facing All-SEC reliever Walker Hooks with a runner aboard, Contrades launched his second homer of the night to tie the game at six.

It was Contrades’ 19th of the season, a jolt that felt like it might become the defining ASU moment for the co-captain and four-year Sun Devil. For a brief stretch, it looked like he was on his way to becoming the hero.

From there, the game completely flipped.

Carlon settled in after the rough start, allowing just one run from the fourth through the seventh inning while striking out nine across 6 2/3 innings. Junior right-hander Taylor Penn, senior left-hander Sean Fitzpatrick and junior right-hander Derek Schaeffer combined for 2 1/3 scoreless innings to send the game to extras, repeatedly escaping traffic. Schaeffer recorded three strikeouts over his 1 2/3 innings.

Ole Miss’ bullpen was every bit as dominant. Despite surrendering Contrades’ game-tying homer, Hooks delivered a career-high 5 1/3 innings before junior right-hander Hudson Calhoun followed with 3 2/3 innings of one-hit relief.

As the innings piled up, the difference became impossible to ignore.

The bottom half of ASU’s lineup never found an answer. Spots five through nine combined to go 2-for-26, repeatedly stalling rallies and placing more pressure on a pitching staff that kept delivering zeros.

That left Alba with an unenviable assignment.

Inserted in the 10th inning to provide length and preserve arms for a potential elimination game, Alba kept answering every challenge. He stranded runners in the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th innings, escaping jam after jam while giving ASU a chance to finally break through.

It never happened.

In the 14th, Alba finally ran out of escapes. Two walks and two singles ended the longest game of ASU’s season and sent Ole Miss into the winner’s bracket with a 7-6 victory.