LAS VEGAS — For most of Monday night, this looked like a game that would be over early, filed away, and forgotten before the week really got going.
Arizona State made sure of that at the start.
The Sun Devils walked into Las Vegas Ballpark and took control immediately, scoring in the first, adding on in the second, and then breaking the game open in the third. It came in layers. Every inning built on the last, and every UNLV mistake seemed to turn into something bigger. By the time the fifth inning ended, the scoreboard read 12-0, and there was little reason to believe anything about this night would be worth revisiting.
Then the game changed.
Not all at once, at least not at first. But once it started, it didn’t stop.
What followed over the final innings wasn’t just a comeback attempt. It was a complete shift in feel, pressure, and belief. UNLV didn’t slowly chip away at the deficit. It flipped the game entirely, nearly erased all 12 runs, and pushed No. 22 Arizona State to the final out before falling 12-11 in a game that ended up looking nothing like it did through five innings.
That is what makes this one stick.
Because the way Arizona State built the lead made what came next feel almost unrealistic. It wasn’t complicated. It was clean baseball early. A leadoff baserunner in the first inning came around to score on a passed ball, then a groundout brought in another. In the second, it was four straight hits with two outs that pushed three more runs across. No wasted movement, no missed opportunities, just steady pressure that kept stacking.
By the third inning, that pressure had turned into something heavier. A defensive mistake opened the door again, and Arizona State took advantage immediately. A sacrifice turned into a run. A two-run double into center stretched the margin. A drawn-out rundown created just enough chaos to bring another run home. What had been manageable quickly became a nine-run gap, and the pace of the game tilted completely.
When the Sun Devils added three more in the fifth, using a two-run double and a groundout to make it 12-0, it felt finished. UNLV had just three hits through five innings, and Arizona State starter Easton Barrett was in full command, striking out nine and giving up almost nothing that could turn into sustained offense.
There was no indication of what was coming.
The shift started quietly in the sixth. A walk. A single. Nothing dramatic on its own, just enough to force a pitching change and create a little movement. Then Drew Barragan stepped in and changed the tone. He drove a triple into the gap to score two, then came home on a wild pitch. It was still 12-3, still a long way to go, but for the first time all night, it felt different.
You could see it. The dugout had life. The at-bats tightened up. Arizona State, which had been moving through innings with ease, suddenly had to work for outs.
Even then, a nine-run deficit that late against a ranked team is not something you expect to disappear. But the eighth inning made that expectation irrelevant.
It didn’t start with one swing. It built. Barragan reached again. Ayden Garcia followed. The pressure kept growing with each baserunner, and Arizona State, so sharp early, started to slip. A throwing error allowed another run. Nin Burns II lined a double down the line. Jonny Rodriguez followed with a single, and suddenly the inning had stretched beyond control.
There was no pause.
Reggie Bussey worked a bases-loaded walk, forcing in another run. The gap kept shrinking, and the ballpark could feel it happening in real time. Arizona State was no longer dictating anything. It was reacting, trying to stop something that had already gained momentum.
Then came the swing.
With the bases loaded and the inning still alive, Marcos Rosales got one he could handle and didn’t miss it. The ball left his bat and carried over the left-field wall for a grand slam, and in that moment, everything flipped. What had been 12-0 was now 12-11. A game that felt finished hours earlier suddenly had an entirely different ending in play.
You could feel it everywhere. The energy inside the ballpark shifted completely. Every pitch mattered. Every movement felt louder. Arizona State, which had controlled the first half of the night, was now searching for a way out of it.
UNLV gave itself that chance in the ninth.
The Rebels retired Arizona State in order in the top half, holding the deficit at one and setting up exactly what you want in that situation. Traffic on the bases. Pressure on the defense. A chance to complete something that had already gone further than anyone expected.
Jonny Rodriguez drew a one-out walk and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. Another walk followed, putting two runners on and bringing the moment fully into view.
And then it ended.
A ground ball up the middle came off the bat with pace, the kind that usually finds a way through. This one didn’t. Arizona State handled it cleanly, turning a game-ending double play that shut the door just as quickly as it had opened.
That’s the part that lingers.
Because what UNLV did over the final four innings was enough to win most games. Drew Barragan finished 4-for-5 with a triple and two RBIs, continuing to anchor the lineup. Marcos Rosales drove in four with the swing that changed everything. Jonny Rodriguez reached base four times and kept pressure on throughout the late innings.
UNLV scored 11 runs in the final four innings.
Arizona State scored 12 in the first five.
That contrast is the entire story, and it is why this one sits the way it does. It is both a loss and a clear signal. Falling behind like that against a team of this caliber leaves almost no margin, even for an offense capable of producing a comeback like this. At the same time, it shows exactly what this group can look like when it finds rhythm and starts dictating the game instead of reacting to it.
That is the next step.
Because as Monday night proved, even when UNLV does everything required to erase a 12-run deficit, even when it plays well enough to take control of the game late, sometimes it still comes down to one swing.
And sometimes, that swing never gets through.