Now, just 50 years later and 31 years after his death, Brock’s 75’ squad returned to the new home of the Sun Devils, eager to watch current head coach Willie Bloomquist follow in his footsteps and take Arizona State to Omaha for the first time since 2010. 

The reunion would be soured, however, as Arizona State (20-11, 7-4 Big 12) fell short of a ninth-inning comeback and lost to Arizona (22-8, 8-3 Big 12) 5-3 to drop the season series and its third straight against the Wildcats.  

Just as the 75’ Sun Devils leaned on the 1-2 punch of Floyd Bannister and Greg Cochran, Arizona State’s success in the present day has been heavily reliant on the success of Ben Jacobs and Jack Martinez. 

Jacobs’ performance on Friday night was strikeout-heavy (10 in five innings), but the ever-persistent Arizona lineup fought through the mud to take Game 1 in 8-5 fashion.

Martinez, looking for different fortunes, followed suit with the deception by tallying a career-high 12 strikeouts in his seven innings of work. Alas, Arizona still managed to plate five runs against the senior right-hander, including three in the top of the sixth that would eventually become the final nail in the coffin for ASU.

Arizona State’s pitching coach Jeremy Accardo felt his pitchers did what they needed to do and that results would come if the mentalities remained the same. 

“I think the toughest part is for us to show up every day ready to go and keep attacking,” Accardo said. “We’re a good enough team that’ll show and that’ll be something that sharpens us up for the rest of the run.”

While the milestone for Martinez was nice, Accardo assures that the counting stats are not the goal for the season. 

“For some people, it probably means something,” Accardo said. “But I think for everybody in that room, it doesn’t mean anything.”

Arizona State’s offense, which had gone toe-to-toe with Arizona’s for most of Friday’s contest, was absent for a majority of the game. ASU compiled all three of its runs after the sixth inning, a testament to the quality of Arizona’s starting pitcher Owen Kramkowski’s stuff. 

Kramkowski turned around one of his best and longest outings of the year, going 8 ⅔ innings on 104 pitches. He allowed three runs on nine hits and a walk and struck out five, suppressing an offense that was ranked fourth in the Big 12 in runs scored (248).

Kramkowski was excellent at keeping the ball on the ground, inducing 15 groundouts and two ground ball double plays to minimize the Sun Devil offense. 

“I think we just expanded the zone on zones we couldn’t handle as well and tried to do too much with it,” Ellison said. “I think if we just settle down a bit and get back to hitting we’ll be fine.”

In the ninth, the Sun Devils were finally able to chip away at the deficit, amassing two runs in a late ninth-inning rally sparked by Brandon Compton and Isaiah Jackson.

With two outs and two men on base, Josiah Cromwick stepped up to the plate with the chance to send the ASU faithful home happy. But after working an eight-pitch at-bat, Arizona closer Tony Pluta was able to fire a fastball past Cromwick to seal the deal.  

Despite the loss, assistant coach Jason Ellison is confident the lineup will anchor itself and the close games will fall in favor of ASU.

“These boys have been fighting all year,” Ellison said. “We’ve had a lot of comeback wins and battled late in games, but against a team like this we gotta do it early and often, and unfortunately today it wasn’t that way.”

While the Sun Devils are now 3-4 against ranked opponents this season, it still remains an indication that ASU is battle tested and can hold their own against top talent.

“I think if we stack our nine against their nine any day of the week, I think we can compete and a lot of times win,” Accardo said. “We’re going to show up and we’re going to come ready to go tomorrow.”

The Sun Devils will look to salvage the series finale on Sunday, first pitch set for 5 p.m. MST.