Kai Murphy hits go-ahead home run as ASU survives elimination in Pac-12 Baseball Tournament

Arizona State’s season unknowingly fell into Kai Murphy’s hands in the sixth inning.

With the eight-seeded Sun Devils on the brink of elimination against No. 4 Oregon at the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, every moment of Thursday’s game mattered.

Murphy came up to the plate with left fielder Will Rogers on first base and hoped to put the ball in play. With starter Isaac Ayon on the mound for Oregon, Murphy knew he had a good slider that gave him trouble during the season. Following two swings, Murphy could’ve had his back to the wall, but his mindset didn’t allow him to think that way. Murphy then sailed the pitch deep into right field for his fifth home run of the season, a two-run shot.

ASU then gained the lead over Oregon and held on to eliminate the Ducks 4-2.

“When things are going bad, you got to be able to step out and reset and remember why you’re here and you’re good and you can do it. I think we’re learning, we’re maturing every game,” Murphy said.

A short turnaround from yesterday’s early afternoon loss against Stanford could have kept the bullpen woes fresh in ASU’s mind as Stanford scored four runs to take the game.

Instead of dwelling on past mistakes, all four relievers shut out Oregon through five innings. Graham Osman earned the win and Brock Peery got the save, while Blake Pivaroff returned to the mound after getting the loss yesterday.

“Blake’s been one of our guys out of the pen all year, he had one bad pitch yesterday and that’s baseball, it happens. We trust him, we believe in him, we need him maybe every day in this tournament. He knows that we trust him and he showed us why,” Murphy said.

Starting pitching had its struggles on both ends with Ayon credited as the losing pitcher and ASU starter Tyler Meyer finding trouble in the game.

Meyer suffered a setback in the fourth inning when Oregon took the lead with two runs scored consecutively on singles from Gavin Grant and Tanner Smith. Christian Bodlovich came in during the inning and struck Anthony Hall to keep the game 2-1. The right-hander had trouble in his previous start against Oregon in the regular season, but fared better this time around and went 4.2 innings with four hits, five walks, and two runs with four strikeouts.

The performances on the mound were outweighed by offensive issues. Both teams had trouble advancing runners on base with 20 left on base. ASU stranded nine runners, but managed to find offense in key points.

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Rogers scored his second run on a sacrifice fly from Joe Lampe in the eighth inning to add insurance.

Once Peery came in the ninth to close the game, the defense had his back with Colby Shade flying to Murphy and Anthony Hall battling through a nine-pitch at-bat before grounding to second baseman Nate Baez. After that, Peery struck out Drew Cowley to keep the season alive.

“It’s easy to second-guess and yesterday, I said it afterwards, those are the guys I wanted in that situation,” ASU coach Willie Bloomquist said. “It’s those guys that you trust and you want the same situation. They have a short memory and go back there and get it done today.”

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For Bloomquist, his memories of Murphy, the son of former ASU coach Pat Murphy, are still fresh. The roles have now been changed as Bloomquist coaches the son of his former coach, but he’ll still remember Kai during his early years at ASU.

I remember way back when he was just a young kid and being around the program and watching him be a bat boy. For him to come up in a big moment today, it’s pretty special. Not only for him, but I’m sure for Big Murph. And for me too. To be able to coach him and see him come through in a big situation is pretty special,” Bloomquist said.

ASU will play at 3 p.m. on Friday against the winner of No. 5 Arizona and No. 1 Stanford.

Reach the reporter at jenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com or 602-647-4122. Follow her on Twitter @jennarortiz. 

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU survives elimination against Oregon at Pac-12 Baseball Tournament