UC Irvine ends ASU's season at College World Series

Omaha, Neb. - Needing to win on Tuesday to stay in contention for its first national title since 1981, the Arizona State baseball team decided to dress the part of a College World Series champion.

ASU College World Series blog

Captain's Log: ASU team captain Rocky Laguna's blog

The Sun Devils’ replica uniforms of the ’81 team — with gold caps and socks, maroon jerseys and white shoes — were appropriate attire, considering they ran through about 26 years’ worth of emotions before their CWS fate was decided.

Trepidation. Relief. Confidence. Excitement at a victory that appears imminent, exasperation as it slips away.

Then, the crushing finality of a season in which ASU’s only objective was a national championship coming to a sudden, shocking end.

An 8-7, 10-inning loss against UC Irvine, the Cinderella story of the CWS, struck midnight on the Sun Devils’ season.

“I’ve been coaching for many years, and this is always the toughest day of the season,” ASU coach Pat Murphy said. “To sit here and have the season over, and you are not the national champion.

“It’s tough, and you think about what if, how come and why us. It’s awfully disappointing, but at the same time, you think about how fun it is to be a part of college baseball and be at this event.”

A day after winning the longest game in CWS history, the Anteaters again were marathon men, erasing a four-run deficit against ASU’s closer in the eighth inning, then winning in the 10th on center fielder Ollie Linton’s bases-loaded single off Mike Leake.

UC Irvine (47-16-1) heads to the final round in Bracket Two, needing to beat Oregon State twice to advance to the best-of-three championship series. That appeared to be the Sun Devils’ destiny in the eighth inning, when closer Jason Jarvis was on the mound, protecting a four-run lead.

“When they were up 7-3, there wasn’t a guy in our dugout who felt that we couldn’t make a run at that,” Anteaters coach Dave Serrano said. “My son, Kyle, looked at me and said, 'Dad, we’re going to do something special this inning.’ That’s what we have going for us right now. It’s a special mind-set.”

More accurately, UC Irvine made a walk at it, as Jarvis, a true freshman, issued three straight bases on balls with no outs. He hit shortstop Ben Orloff to force in a run, and second baseman Cody Cipriano, singled to cut the margin to 7-5.

Murphy summoned Leake, who pitched seven innings on Saturday and was the scheduled starter for a game today. The first batter he faced, left fielder Matt Morris, doubled to right field for two runs to knot the score.

Jarvis entered Tuesday’s game with 11 saves and was the winning pitcher in ASU’s opening-round victory against the Anteaters on Saturday.

“I know that a lot of people are going to look at Jarvis,” Murphy said. “But he has been unbelievable for us this year. He would load the bases and get out of it like clockwork. Even when the bases were loaded with no outs, we thought he would get out of it.”

The game advanced to the 10th inning, where the Sun Devils (49-15) loaded the bases with one out and had first baseman Brett Wallace, the Pac-10’s triple crown winner and league player of the year, at bat.

Wallace grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, ending a miserable CWS in which the sophomore went hitless in 12 at-bats.

“He’s hurting and struggling right now,” Murphy said. “I thought seriously about pinch-hitting for him (earlier in the game), but I decided that Brett had earned the right to be there. He’s disappointed, but he will learn from this.”

Left-hander Brian Flores started for ASU for a second straight game, a day after throwing just 21 pitches and allowing two runs in a loss to Oregon State. He was much more effective against the Anteaters, allowing three runs and five hits in six innings.

However, the Sun Devils — with the exception of catcher Petey Paramore, who went 3-for-3 with a home run, two doubles and two walks — could not bust out against UC Irvine’s Eric Pettis, a true freshman, until the seventh inning. They scored two runs in the frame to take their first lead, 4-3.

In the eighth, an RBI single by Romine and pinch-hit, two-run double off the bat of Ryan Sontag made the score 7-3.

“We did everything we could,” said Romine, a fifth-round selection of the Los Angeles Angels in this year’s draft. “We played the heck out of this game. It just didn’t go our way.”

Murphy said he felt the Sun Devils peaked too soon — pinpointing the second half of the regular season, when they won 22 of 25 games — and when the competition was at its most demanding in the CWS, ASU’s lack of bullpen depth and its slumping hitters became liabilities.

“Our weaknesses were exposed over the last two games,” Murphy said.

DEVILS DIAMOND NOTES:

Turning point: ASU closer Jason Jarvis, staked to a 7-3 lead, gave up four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning by walking three batters, hitting a fourth and allowing a two-run single.

Stat of the day: The Sun Devils had just two base runners and one run through the first five innings.

Unsung hero: Petey Paramore was on base four times for the Sun Devils, with a homer, two doubles and a walk.

Plunk city: When ASU right fielder Rocky Laguna (pictured) was hit by a pitch in the 10th inning, it was the 37th time a batter had been plunked in the College World Series, a record. And there are still at least four games remaining.