Arizona beats ASU in baseball to win the all-sport Territorial Cup Series

This trophy will be staying in Tucson. Photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics.

The Territorial Cup Series, competed over eight months and 18 sports, came down to one pitch on Sunday afternoon.

Arizona Wildcats left-hander Augey Bill, with one out and the bases loaded, protecting a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the ninth, fired an 0-1 pitch to Arizona State’s Nate Causey.

Causey hit a grounder back to Bill, who threw home for a force out, and then catcher Riley Moore tossed to first baseman Joseph Maggi for the third out.

With that, the Cats won the three-game series in Tempe and took the season series from the Devils, 3-2, including two non-conference games in Tucson.

And, just as importantly, if not more so, for the entire athletic department, Arizona won the deciding point in the Territorial Cup Series, taking the season-long all-sport competition 9.5 to 8.5.

Arizona has won the Territorial Cup Series in each of the four seasons of its existence.

(Jeff Metcalfe of the Arizona Republic wrote the schools are in dispute over whether men’s indoor track should count in the series, which would give ASU another point. It probably doesn’t matter. The Wildcats have a significant edge in the tiebreaker — a higher finish in the national Director’s Cup, which is an all-sport ranking based on how teams fare in the postseason.)

As a refresher, here is how the Territorial Cup Series works:

–If Arizona and Arizona State play once (football, for example), the winner gets a point.

–For basketball and volleyball, each meeting is worth a half-point.

–For swimming and diving, cross country, golf, and track and field, the team that finishes higher at the Pac-12 championship earns one point.

–For baseball and softball, one point is given to the winner of the entire season series, including non-conference games.

Arizona won 12.5 to 5.5 last season.

Here is a look at how Arizona and Arizona State fared against each other in each of 18 sports this season, with links to game stories or the final results: