No. 16 Sun Devil Baseball avoided the sweep with the win on Mother’s Day as Dominic Smaldino hit three home runs and collected eight RBIs.
Alyssa Colwell
Dominic Smaldino hit three home runs in the victory against Oklahoma State
PHOENIX — No. 16 Sun Devil Baseball did what it has done best all season, winning a series finale and – in doing so – salvaging its series against Oklahoma State with an 11-7 victory on Sunday at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
In the final home game of the 2026 regular season – a campaign that saw ASU set a school record in averaging 3,553 fans per game over the course of the year – Dominic Smaldino put the team on his back and matched an Arizona State single-game school record with three home runs while also logging eight RBIs.
The Sun Devils (34-17, 17-10 Big 12) moved to 10-2 in series finales in the process (losses at KSU, vs. WVU) and maintained a hold on third place in the Big 12 rankings heading into the final weekend of play three games back from conference leader Kansas.
Kole Klecker capped off his exceptional campaign within the hitter friendly confines of Phoenix Municipal Stadium with 5.0 innings of one-run baseball, striking out seven with just one walk while scattering five hits against one of the most potent offenses in the nation.
Landon Hairston, Nu’u Contrades and Beckett Zavorek all notched multi-hit days. Sean Fitzpatrick, Finn Edwards and Derek Schaefer all stranded runners in relief in their 2.1 combined innings of work.
Turning point
The Sun Devils were in desperate need of a weekend-salvaging victory on Sunday and the team turned to the guy that has helped them be so good in series finales all year long in Kole Klecker. After watching the Cowboys homer seven times last night and eight times in the previous 10 innings of the series, Klecker – who had to leave last week’s Sunday game early – largely stymied the incredibly potent Cowboy offense and held it to just one run on a solo homer over his 5.0 innings of work. Klecker struck out seven and walked just one and stranded five baserunners. That effort allowed the Sun Devils to jump out to an 8-1 lead through his five innings, keyed by a five-run third inning that saw Smaldino pick up his first homer on a three-run shot while Ky McGary recorded his first career homer as a pinch hitter.
Big moment
With Oklahoma State’s potent offense and affinity for the long ball, no lead seemed safe and the momentum had shifted at the start of the back half of the game with the Cowboys getting two runs back in the fifth and having two runners on in the sixth when Aidan Meola ripped one to the wall in right center field. What looked like it would have plated two runs and brought OSU back within four runs proved to be the inning-ending out as Landon Hairston sprinted into the frame and made a leaping grab at the ball to get ASU through the inning unscathed and keep the game from spiraling into OSU’s favor.
Final straw
After OSU got two runners on to lead off the eighth, Finn Edwards entered and flashed his highest velo of the season as he notched a strikeout and got the Cowboys to roll into an inning-ending double play to put a zero on the board. Smaldino put the finishing touches on his day with a two-run homer on the first pitch he saw for his record tying third homer and an 11-3 ASU advantage. The Cowboys didn’t go quietly into the afternoon, however, notching a pair of homers and four runs in the ninth to put the tying run in the hole. Derek Schaefer entered and squashed that with two quick outs to seal the victory.
The big number
3 – Dominic Smaldino tied ASU’s school record for a single game with his three-home run effort on Sunday, giving him five homers in less than 24 hours after recording two last night. The two games marked the first two multi-homer games of the juniors career. Smaldino is tied with 10 other players that have notched the milestone in program history and became the first Sun Devil to record three homers in a game since Joey DiMichele on May 1, 2011 against Stanford. Smaldino recorded eight RBIs in the game, which ties him for fourth in ASU single-game history as well.
