After flirting with fire on the mound on Friday and Saturday, the Sun Devil arms simply conceded too much on Sunday, as Arizona State (2-1) squandered its chance to open the 2024 season with a sweep of Santa Clara (1-2), falling 14-13 in a back-and-forth battle.
“That’s a good hitting team over there,” catcher Ryan Campos said of the Broncos. “Sometimes, you got to give them credit. They’re working hard pitch-to-pitch. We made some mistakes, and they just took advantage of it every time.”
“We gave up a lot of runs,” head coach Willie Bloomquist continued. We got to be able to fix that. They’re a very experienced team that doesn’t give away at-bats, so it combines both.”
In a reverse final score of Saturday’s proceedings, the Sun Devils once again swung the bats early and often on the capable arms of Santa Clara, putting up double digits for the third time in as many games this weekend. After Thomas Burns excelled on Friday, and Hunter Omlid combined with Cole Carlon to slam the door on Saturday, the Sun Devil pitching had been stretched thin. It couldn’t hold up against the experienced Bronco bats, who would tally 14 runs on 15 hits to spoil Tyler Meyer’s return to the bump after missing all of last season with a shoulder injury.
Chasing the redshirt sophomore from the contest in the opening innings, the Broncos continued their onslaught on Jonah Giblin and would rack up 10 of their runs by the fifth inning. With Meyer and Giblin’s veteran status compared to the plethora of freshmen who wouldn’t have the exact high expectations, Bloomquist was adamant in the strength of the SC lineup but also on the shortcomings of his arms.
“This lineup we just faced is an experienced, older lineup,” Bloomquist said. “Regional team last year that has most of their lineup back… We’re going to need to evolve a little bit better as a pitching staff and shorten games better than we’re doing right now. Lot of these guys this is their first time playing at this level. Take the things we need to learn from, get better at it. We knew there were going to be some growing pains… I’d rather get hit around the yard than walk the yard. As long as they keep attacking the zone, we can work with that. I don’t believe our pitching staff would get lit up that way. I think we’re tipping pitches a little bit. Thought yesterday and confirmed today that we’re tipping pitches. Those guys are very good at picking stuff. Those are things we got to clean up.”
Carlon and Ben Jacobs were able to bridge the gap to the late innings by limiting SC to two runs between the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings, which allowed the ASU offense the time it needed to surge back.
Having been held silent for three frames by SC’s August Souza, the Sun Devil bats were once again up to the challenge of another slugfest, notching seven runs of their own via a Ryan Campos longball in the first, and a pair of two-run hits from Ethan Mendoza (5-5) and Harris Williams (3-6, HR, 4 RBI) in the third. As SC responded with four runs combined in the fifth and sixth to take an 11-7 advantage, ASU struck back with a four-spot in the seventh, highlighted by a three-run home run off the bat of Ryan Campos, his second dinger of the day after a quiet Friday and Saturday at the plate.
“One thing we emphasized: do not count us out, ever.” Harris Williams said of the rally.
Determined to salvage a win from the frustrating opening series, the Broncos scratched a one-up run across in the eighth to retake the lead, which would be shortlived. Making his first collegiate start, freshman second baseman Ethan Mendoza had already had quite the memorable day. Getting the call to start, his father, Robert, was in attendance to see his son start the game going 4-4, all singles, to pass the baton in a loaded Sun Devil lineup. In the eighth, with Isaiah Jackson in scoring position and two away, Mendoza took his turn at the big hit, and roped a long single that was centimeters from clearing the Adidas sign on the left field wall. Nonetheless, Mendoza’s knock knotted the score at 12.
“Have a day, kid,” Bloomquist told him postgame.
Despite Mrndoza’s efforts, Hunter Omlid couldn’t keep SC off the board in the ninth, as JonJOn Berring launched his second home run of the day, and fourth of the weekend, to put SC up 14-12, and affirmed to everyone on hand the commonality of offense that Phoenix Municipal Stadium offers.
“The ballpark we play in, sometimes it’s not pitcher-friendly,” Bloomquist said. “We understand we’re going to give up hits and runs in this ballpark. That’s the nature of Muni. If you don’t have thick skin, you can’t play here as a pitcher.”
“Muni’s a little bit of a launchpad,” Williams continued. “Both teams get to benefit from that.”
Unfortunately for Williams and the Sun Devils, ASU would get the short end of the stick on Sunday. While the San Francisco transfer would launch a leadoff home run in the bottom half, and ASU would put two runners on with two away, Isaiah Jackson would pop out with the winning run on base, cementing ASU’s first defeat of the season. Yet, still winning the series over the predicted top team in the WCC is nothing to scoff at for the Sun Devils, and their comeback efforts the last two days were unmissable.
“We got a tough team,” Campos said. “Testament to the people we got here. Lot of stuff to build on after this weekend.”
“This is a good benchmark,” Bloomquist stated. “We’ll continue to try to figure out ways to improve our play as we move on.”
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