UW Drops 16-Inning Heartbreaker to ASU

SEATTLE -- The Washington Huskies (10-15, 2-8) dropped a five-hour, 16-inning marathon to the Arizona State Sun Devils (17-8, 6-4) in a game that started on Friday night and didn't conclude until the early hours of Saturday. 

The Huskies had numerous opportunities to walk off the Sun Devils, but a rare 5U-3 double-play with the bases-loaded to end the 14th and an ever rarer interference call on Kaiser Weiss in the 15th helped ASU keep UW off the scoreboard.

Logan Gerling started for the Huskies and turned in his second straight quality start, going 7+ innings, giving up 2 runs on 9 hits, striking out six and walking none. All but one of ASU's hits were singles.

The first run for the Sun Devils came in the second inning, as an infield single with two outs brought in a runner from third base. In the next inning, a sac-fly would give them a 2-0 advantage.

While UW struggled to find offense for most of the game, a rally in the seventh inning would tie up the game. With two outs and the bases loaded, Will Simpson ripped a single into left field, bringing home Michael Petrie and Preston Viltz and making it a 2-2 game. 

From that point on, there would be eight straight scoreless innings between the two teams. And while there were no runs, it wasn't an uneventful eight innings. 

For the Huskies, Dylan Lamb was untouchable out of the bullpen and did his part for UW, He came in with two men on and no outs in the eighth inning and promptly struck out the side to keep ASU off the board. He threw scoreless ninth and tenth innings to give UW two chances to walk it off. 

The Huskies would go down in order in both of those innings, extending the game into an 11th inning. Adam Bloebaum came in to replace Lamb and was just as dominant. Due to a passed ball on a third strike, Bloebaum would strike out four Sun Devils in a scoreless 11th inning. UW once again went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning. 

After two more strikeouts in a scoreless 12th for Bloebaum, the Huskies had a chance to win when Braiden Ward singled and stole second with two outs. A groundout to third base would end the inning, however. 

Davis Delorefice would enter for the 13th and throw another scoreless frame. With one out in the bottom of the inning and Nick Kresnak on second base, Kaiser Weiss dropped a single into right field. Kresnak attempted to score the winning run, but a perfect throw by ASU's right fielder got him out at home and the Huskies would end the inning with two runners left on base. 

After a second scoreless inning by Delorefice, the Huskies had another great chance to score in the 14th inning. With the bases loaded and one out, Nick Kresnak hit a hard ground ball to third base, but the Sun Devil third baseman turned a slick double play by stepping on the base and throwing Kresnak out all in one motion to save the game. 

With the game still tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the 15th, Michael Snyder singled into left field to lead off the inning. Kaiser Weiss attempted to bunt him over, but was called out for interference when the throw to first hit him. Snyder was sent back to first and UW would not score that inning. 

The breakthrough for ASU came in the 16th inning. A fielding error followed by a sac bunt and intentional walk gave the Sun Devils runners on first and second with two outs. A ground ball to third base was initially bobbled and then a wide throw to first base allowed the runner on second to come around to score and make it a 3-2 lead for ASU. The Huskies went down in order to end the game.
Husky Notes

• This was the longest game for Washington since a 3-2 loss in 16 innings to USC on 3/28/15 at Husky Ballpark.
• This game is tied with the aforementioned USC game for the longest game in UW history dating back to when the record books first started tracking extra inning games (1980).
• The UW bullpen combined to throw 9.0 innings with 0 ER, 2 H and 14 Ks.
• Johnny Tincher recorded the first hit of his career, a double in the 14th inning.