Sun Devils outlast Kansas State in chaotic road series win

D1Baseball wrote this past week that Arizona State was sitting on the doorstep of the Top 25. After the series win over then No. 17 TCU, the outlet noted the Sun Devils looked like a team trending toward something bigger, pointing to the emergence of arms such as junior left-hander Cole Carlon and senior right-hander Kole Klecker as the type of pitching that could push ASU from dangerous to elite.

If that label was going to hold any weight, this weekend was the test. Kansas State entered the series with the second-ranked offense in the Big 12 and one of the hottest lineups in the country, fresh off 42 runs against Houston, 13 against Baylor and a season-high 24 against Penn State. Manhattan has not been kind to visiting staffs, and ASU walked into it needing to prove its recent run was more than a good stretch. It needed to look like a contender again.

ASU did not silence Kansas State’s bats, and few teams may this season. What the Sun Devils showed instead was just as telling. They showed resilience, the ability to adjust, and the late-game edge that is starting to define this roster. In the opener, ASU erased a 4-3 deficit and pulled out a 5-4 win when sophomore outfielder Landon Hairston launched the go-ahead home run.

Game two turned into a shootout. The teams combined for 30 runs, and ASU trailed in both the seventh and ninth innings before erupting for eight runs in the ninth to take the series. Hairston and graduate outfielder Dean Toigo led the charge, combining for eight hits, six extra-base hits and three home runs in one of the wildest games of the season.

The finale was forgettable. Klecker endured the worst start of his career, Kansas State rolled to a 12-1 run-rule win, and the Wildcats avoided the sweep. ASU still left Manhattan with the series, another road statement, and more proof this group keeps finding ways to win when the game turns chaotic.

Sunday’s loss could not erase what happened the first two days, when the Sun Devils delivered two of their best wins of the season against a team expected to remain near the top of the conference.

Carlon set the tone to open the weekend, continuing to grow into the front-line starter head coach Willie Bloomquist envisioned when he moved him back into the rotation. Carlon entered Friday with back-to-back double-digit strikeout games, including a career-high 11 against TCU, and drew the assignment against the conference’s hottest offense.

The 6-foot-5 left-hander had to grind. He issued a season-high five walks and allowed four hits, two of them home runs, as Kansas State repeatedly forced deep counts. His biggest moment came in the fifth, when he walked the bases loaded with one out but escaped with a strikeout and a groundout to preserve a 3-1 lead.

Bloomquist sent Carlon back out for the sixth, and Kansas State answered immediately. Junior infielder Dee Kennedy, already a Big 12 Player of the Week and D1Baseball National Player of the Week, launched his 10th home run of the season to tie the game, a total among the conference leaders.

The game stayed even only briefly. Kansas State moved in front in the seventh with a two-out single off senior left-hander Sean Fitzpatrick, who had been perfect through 8 1/3 innings. 

ASU answered in the eighth. A single and an error set up the tying run, and a groundout evened the score, bringing Hairston to the plate with two outs. He did not miss, driving an 0-2 pitch deep to right field for the go-ahead home run. The Sun Devils held the lead from there and took the opener, winning 5-4 and setting the tone for a weekend that demanded toughness from the first pitch.

Game two made it clear immediately that nothing was going to come easy. First pitch temperature pushed into the mid-90s, the wind carried in a small park, and two of the best offenses in the conference wasted no time turning the afternoon into another slugfest. 

Twelve runs crossed the plate in the first three innings as the two offenses went to work immediately. Toigo and Hairston each launched two-run homers, and Hairston finished the day with four hits and nine total bases, both career highs. Kansas State answered every time, forcing a short outing from junior right-hander Alex Overbay, who lasted just 1 1/3 innings while giving up seven hits and five earned runs.

The middle innings became a battle of adjustments and endurance. Graduate right-hander Colby Guy steadied the Sun Devils, delivering 3 2/3 innings of one-run ball and giving ASU room to reset as both lineups continued their relentless attack. The Wildcats regained the lead late, and when Dee Kennedy launched a towering two-run homer in the eighth, it felt like deja vu, Kansas State had built its season on moments like this.

Arizona State refused to waver. Junior infielder Dominic Smaldino doubled to open the ninth, sparking a rally that quickly unraveled the Wildcats. Three straight hits tied the game, and a wild pitch nudged ASU into the lead. 

With the bases loaded, Toigo drove the ball the other way for a grand slam that put the game out of reach. It was his second home run of the afternoon, his team-leading 11th of the season, his eighth four-bagger in nine days, and his sixth RBI of the game. By the final out, the 18-12 victory had firmly cemented the series in the Sun Devils’ favor.

The chance for a sweep Sunday went the other way in a hurry. A Kansas State lineup tired of chasing all weekend came out swinging, and Klecker found himself on the wrong side of it. One week removed from one of the best outings of his career against his former team at TCU, the right-hander ran into his toughest start of the season. 

Kansas State strung together big inning after big inning, scoring five in the third, two more in the fourth, then another five-run burst that forced ASU to wear the rest of the game.

Senior left-hander Logan Sheffield provided the opposite result for the Wildcats, delivering the first start of the weekend that truly slowed ASU down. Sheffield went the distance in the seven-inning run-rule game, allowing just five hits and one run while striking out six to salvage the finale.

Still, the result did little to change the bigger picture. Series like this are why college baseball is played over three days, not one. ASU walked into one of the toughest offensive environments in the Big 12, against a team that had dominated at home for more than a year, and left with the series. Kansas State entered the weekend with just one home loss this season after going 18-3 at Tointon Family Stadium last year, marking the Wildcats’ first home series loss since March 2024.

The reward will follow. When the new rankings come out Monday, ASU is expected to see a spot in the Top 25, earned the hard way after a weekend that demanded it.