Meyer Stymies #3 Oregon State in 3-1 Sun Devil Victory

CORVALLIS -- Sun Devil Baseball shook off the first two games of a tough weekend in Corvallis and rode the back of Tyler Meyer and a ninth-inning rally to knock off #3 Oregon State, 3-1, in the series finale on Sunday. 
 
After getting its teeth kicked in in the first two games of the series, ASU faced balmy conditions on Sunday with a steady dribble and low-to-mid 40 temperatures for a Sunday baseball game with Meyer taking the bump. 
 
Meyer didn't even flinch, holding OSU to just four hits in his career-high 7.0 innings of work. He struck out nine Beavers to just two walks, allowing just one run in the second inning – where two of those four hits occurred.
 
The sophomore transfer was electric, keeping the potent Beaver offense off balance all afternoon with his change and slider mixing in with the fastball. Oregon State had racked up 31 hits and 33 runs in the first two games of the series before running into the buzz saw that was Meyer.
 
OSU managed just five hits for the game with the one run – the lowest tally of its season after entering the weekend tied for 14th in the country averaging 9.5 runs per game and the fewest since it was shut out in the final Pac-12 series of the season at Stanford last season. 

Brock Peery earned his third save of the season while Will Levine and Christian Bodlovich worked out of an eighth inning jam. All told, ASU held the Beavers to 1-for-12 hitting (.083) with runners in scoring position and 2-for-17 (.118) with runners on the base path.

ASU didn't get much going offensive until its ninth-inning rally, working a trio of walks and getting pivotal hits from Conor Davis and Nate Baez and a sac fly from Kai Murphy to score three runs in the frame – its only three runs of the game and outscoring its output of two total runs in the 26 innings of action leading up to the decisive ninth. 
TURNING POINT
After Meyer's efforts, ASU went to its bull pen for the first time in the eighth, trailing 1-0. Levine issued a one-out walk to Jacob Melton that would quickly move to third on two wild pitches. The possibly deflating insurance run sat just 90 feet away with the OSU clean-up hitter Garret Forrester and the red-hot Travis Bazzana due up. Levine got Forrester to ground out to short, with McLain looking Melton back to third before getting the out at first. 
 
ASU then went to Christian Bodlovich to take on Bazzana. His whole career, Bodlovich has been at his best working out of jams he's been put into, entering the game having inherited 35 baserunners in his career and allowing just seven to score (20.0 percent). Bazzana was 5-for-12 in the first two games with 11 RBI but Bodlovich was up to task, quickly putting him down 0-2 in the count before eventually issuing a 2-2 flyout on the seventh pitch of the AB to keep it a 1-0 game and not suck the wind for the Sun Devil sails heading into the decisive ninth inning. 
THE BIG MOMENT
All weekend, it was an offensive struggle and it continued all day on Sunday with ASU managing just two hits through the first eight innings while OSU had retired 14 straight Sun Devil batters heading into the ninth and made it 15 with a leadoff ground out from Sean McLain. But Ethan Long drew a one-out walk and Conor Davis folloed it up with a 1-2 double to left center to put the tying run 90 feet away and the go-ahead run at second.
 
Nate Baez tied the game with a single up the middle to plate Long and put runners on the corners and Ryan Campos drew a second walk of the inning to load the bases with an out. OSU went to Mitchell Verburg and ASU countered with pinch hitter Jacob Tobias. Tobias quickly went down 0-2 in the count with a pair of swinging misses before working an incredibly mature and patient at-bat, spitting on a pair of ball just outside of the strike zone, working the count full, fouling off a pitch before drawing the RBI bases loaded walk to plate the go-ahead run. Kai Murphy laced a ball deep into foul territory and OSU elected to catch the ball in foul territory, allowing Baez to tag up and score on the sac fly to give ASU some insurance at 3-1.
THE FINAL STRAW
ASU went to Brock Peery out of the pen for the close and the sophomore, who struggled early this season, quickly shook off a leadoff single to strike out the side and earn his third save of the season in the process.
NOTABLES

• Brock Peery had a very forgettable first two weeks of baseball, posting a 21.60 ERA in four appearances in the first seven games of the year with an 0-1 record and managing just 1.2 innings with four walks, three HBP and a .500 average against. Willie Bloomquist and Sam Peraza have continued to stick with him, however, and the sophomore has rewarded them with eight appearances in the last 14 games in which he has recorded three saves and a 1.17 ERA  over 7.2 innings, recording six strikeouts to just two walks and an HBP while cutting the opponent average to .240.
• Tyler Meyer has been elite especially effective against ASU's top opponents this season. In his four starts against a Top-5 Oklahoma State team, a Top-5 Oregon State team, preseason Top-25 UC Irvine and a Nevada team that won the Mountain West and advanced to the NCAA Tournament last season, Meyer has a 2.08 ERA in 21.2 inning pitched with two quality starts, a win and 25 strikeouts while holding opponents to .195 hitting.
• ASU has had its issues late in games this season, especially early on, but the last four of ASU's wins have seen the Sun Devils post the go-ahead run in the sixth inning or later in each game and three of them have been in the seventh inning or later – including Sunday's victory. 
• Christian Bodlovich has now inherited 36 baserunners in his career and only seven have scored (19.4 percent) – with only two scoring on 14 chances this season. 

INNING-BY-INNING
 
First Inning
ASU got a leadoff walk from Lampe and two-out HBP from Davis but a strikeout stranded the pair. Oregon State had a leadoff walk followed by a stolen base but Meyer settled in to strand the runner at second and hold OSU scoreless in the first inning for the first time this weekend after the Beavers had seven combined in the first inning of the last two games.  

Second Inning
ASU stranded a two-out walk from Murphy. Meyer gave up a two-out RBI double and Oregon State got on the board first with a 1-0 lead.

Third Inning
The Devils got a one-out single from McLain and that spawned a pitching change but a strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play ended any threat.  

Fourth Inning
Baez reached on a one-out single and took second on a wild pitch. Campos nearly reached on a bang-bang play at first that brought Willie Bloomquist out of the dugout for a lengthy discussion with the first base umpire as it would have had runners on the corners with one out. Instead, a strikeout stranded to the tying run to keep it 1-0. 

Meyer found himself in a jam with a leadoff walk and single bringing up OSU's Mason Guerra, who was 8-for-8 on the series to that point but Meyer got the backwards K followed by two flyouts to escape the inning unscathed.

Fifth Inning
Kai Murphy drove warn to the warning track in right but it would be a 1-2-3 inning for the Devils. Meyer continued his impressive day, working around a two-out, 2-2 HBP/stolen base to strand the runner in scoring position and keep ASU within a run.  

Sixth Inning
The heart of the Sun Devil order went down on five pitches. Meyer added a pair of strikeouts to bring his total to nine, retiring Guerra for the second straight time via strikeout.  

Seventh Inning
ASU struggled to get anything going with another 1-2-3 inning. Meyer continued his incredible effort with another scoreless frame, staying in the game after a two-out base hit that was a play his defense probably should have made, shaking Willie Bloomquist off on his trip to the mound and getting a harmless flyout to end the frame and keep ASU within a run.
 
Eighth Inning
Again, a 1-2-3 inning for the Devils. ASU went to the bullpen for the first time in the game. Levine issued a one-out walk that would move to third on two wild pitches. But a groundout from Levine and flyout from Bodlovich kept it a 1-0 game to give ASU a chance in the ninth
 
Ninth Inning
Ethan Long drew a one-out walk and Conor Davis folloed it up with a 1-2 double to left center to put the tying run 90 feet away and the go-ahead run at second. Nate Baez tied the game with a single up the middle to plate Long and put runners on the corners and Ryan Campos drew a second walk of the inning to load the bases with an out. OSU went to Mitchell Verburg and ASU countered with pinch hitter Jacob Tobias. Tobias quickly went down 0-2 in the count with a pair of swinging misses before working an incredibly mature and patient at-bat, spitting on a pair of ball just outside of the strike zone, working the count full, fouling off a pitch before drawing the RBI bases loaded walk to plate the go-ahead run. Kai Murphy laced a ball deep into foul territory and OSU elected to catch the ball in foul territory, allowing Baez to tag up and score on the sac fly to give ASU some insurance at 3-1.
 
ASU went to Brock Peery out of the pen for the close and the sophomore, who struggled early this season, quickly shook off a leadoff single to strike out the side and earn his third save of the season in the process.
UP NEXT
The Sun Devils will get four home games in the confines of Phoenix Municipal Stadium this weekend, taking on cross-town rival Grand Canyon on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. AZT before hosting Washington for a three-game Pac-12 set beginning on Friday. The UW series will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network Arizona/Washington with games schedule for 6 p.m./2 p.m./12 p.m. All four games will be available over the airwaves on KDUS 1060 AM.