Alec Marsh builds his case to stay in the rotation as ASU earns walk-off win

PHOENIX – Through six innings on Thursday night, Arizona State pitcher Alec Marsh was finishing his sophomore season with a statement.

Marsh was dominating the California Golden Bears’ lineup, once again proving his worth as a weekend rotation starter over a 6 1/3 innings appearance that saw him surrender three runs, four hits and strike out six in his team’s 5-4 win.

Entering the seventh inning at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, he had ASU’s 3-2 lead intact. But after a walk and a groundout, Marsh’s night came to an end and his bullpen promptly squandered the lead.

Cal scored two runs (the first was charged to Marsh) on three more walks and a hit batter in the seventh, turning a one-run deficit into a 4-3 lead without recording a hit in the inning.

ASU went on to rally in the bottom of the ninth, using consecutive hits from Carter Aldrete (an infield single), Lyle Lin (an RBI double to center) and Hunter Bishop (an RBI single) to score two runs in the ninth for a walk-off 5-4 win in the opening game of the team’s final series of the 2018 season.

ASU coach Tracy Smith praised his team’s never-say-die attitude postgame. But he couldn’t avoid the fact the Sun Devils had struck rare good fortune to salvage a 23rd victory of the year, equaling their win total from a disastrous 2017 campaign.

“We got lucky,” he said.

While Bishop’s chopper up the middle – a swing he admitted he “lucked out” on after failing to stay through the ball – might have been the deciding hit, it was Marsh’s performance that will leave a longer-lasting impact. It helped build his case to remain in the Sun Devils’ starting rotation next spring.

Marsh has had a fascinating 2018 season. Coming off a bumpy freshman year in 2017 (he recorded an 8.14 ERA in 11 appearances), little was expected from Marsh entering this campaign. Though his fastball sits around 90 miles-per-hour, he was slated to simply be a middle reliever.

Early in fall preseason, he pitched like one too.

“There were a lot of times in the fall where I would have to grab him and go, ‘That doesn’t play,’” first-year ASU pitching coach Mike Cather said on Tuesday.

Cather remembered Marsh would get behind batters in simulated games. He pitched afraid and nibbled the zone. Though Cather could see some starting-pitching characteristics in Marsh, it wasn’t on a consistent enough basis to consider him a rotation candidate.

“That’s such a critical aspect of a starting pitcher versus a relief pitcher,” Cather said. “You have to stay locked in the whole time.”

Slowly, Marsh began to change.

After two strong relief appearances to begin the season, Marsh got his first start on March 4 against Oklahoma State. A week later, he started again against Arizona. He’s done nothing but start games since.

“He discovered that he’s really good,” Cather said.

Injuries and inconsistencies in front of him eventually landed Marsh in the Friday night role as the Sun Devils’ No. 1 starter. Though he didn’t always pitch like an “ace,” he’ll finish the year 3-3 with a 3.89 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 71 2/3 innings.

“I tend to think I’m the best and I want to be the best,” Marsh said back in April. “If you have that mentality, you approach hitters with that mentality, usually it ends up better for you.”

His start against Cal on Thursday was one of Marsh’s best. He got ahead of hitters constantly by painting the corners of the zone with his fastball early in counts. With two strikes, he’d bury batter with his off-speed stuff. Almost all of his six strikeouts were with his slider – a pitch he said he added in the middle of the season.

“He did a really good job of sequencing his pitches, locating his pitches. He had his slider working really well,” Smith said. “Got a little fatigued there at the end. I feel badly for him because he certainly pitched well enough to win.”

He again looked the part of a rotation-quality arm.

On Tuesday, Smith wouldn’t commit to using Marsh as a weekend starter again in 2019. His reasons were valid: For all the good moments the sophomore has had, Marsh has looked equally shaky at times too. He’s flashed, then faded.

“He’s shown at times that he’s a weekend guy in the Pac-12. He’s shown at (other) times he’s not ready for that,” Smith added on Tuesday.

In his two previous starts before Thursday, for example, Marsh had battled command issues, failing to get out of the fourth inning both times. But against Cal, he once again appeared more than capable of handling a Pac-12 lineup.

“He has a really good slider and throws some really good fastballs,” Lin said. “I think he has done a good job this year and I know that he’ll get better next year.”

Marsh’s best moment of the night perhaps came in the top of the fourth. Cal first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who entered the game batting .414 with 23 home runs, led off the inning by getting ahead in the count 3-1. But Marsh forced a swing-and-miss with a perfectly executed curveball on the outside part of the plate to bring the count full, then got Vaughn to foul off a fastball and a changeup, and fanned him with the slider.

Against one of the best hitters in the country, Marsh used his full – and lethal – array of pitches to effect.

Marsh said this week he will head to the Cape Cod League this summer for a couple starts before heading home to train. When he returns to ASU next fall, he’ll be the most experienced starter on ASU’s staff.

“That’s what we’re looking at, is the growth of these guys and projecting at it, trying to give them experience and make sure they understand how important even these last two baseball games are,” Smith said. “What’s the memory we’re leaving with in the summer?”

The final memory Smith will have of Marsh this season: watching him walk back to the dugout with one out in the seventh, bringing the crowd to a standing ovation. He had earned it.

OTHER NOTES:

*WITH CANNING LIKELY TO LEAVE, SMITH HAPPY TO SEE OUTFIELDERS BISHOP, ALDRETE HIT: This is likely the final weekend of college baseball Gage Canning will play. The junior center fielder is hitting .377 this season and projects as a mid- to high-round MLB draft pick this summer. If he does leave, something Tracy Smith said he expects to happen, he’ll leave a gaping hole in center.

It’s made the recent hot streaks from sophomore outfielders Carter Aldrete and Hunter Bishop all the more important. Bishop collected the game-winning hit on Thursday, giving him nine hits and 12 RBIs in his last seven games. Aldrete had a two-hit night against Cal, upping his season batting average to .295, the highest it’s been since late March.

“To see Hunter get better and better, that’s definitely an encouraging sign,” Smith said. “To see Aldrete be able to move in different positions around the diamond to help us win, stick in big hits, that’s definitely a positive.”

*DELLAN RAISH LIKELY SHUT DOWN FOR THE SEASON: Redshirt freshman relief pitcher Dellan Raish had become ASU’s most trusted bullpen arm this season but hasn’t pitched since May 14 with what Smith revealed on Thursday is a tendinitis injury.

Smith said Raish, who has a 3.00 ERA and a 4-1 record this year, is unlikely to be used in this weekend’s season-finale series.

“He could pitch. We just want to be smart with him,” Smith said. “He’s getting better. Tendentious is a funny thing. It’s like you can heat it up and perform without risk of injury but it hurts like heck. Our thought is if we can just be smart with it and eliminate that and give him the summer to recuperate, that’s probably the wisest thing to do.”