When Arizona State failed to add on to a one-run lead with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the sixth, it looked like the team’s consistent inability to cash in the big hit with runners in scoring position might plague them again. When the same situation presented itself an inning later, Ethan Long said not so fast. He belted a grand slam well beyond the left field wall, leading the charge as ASU took down San Francisco 8-5 in the series opener.

“It felt long overdue, to say the least,” Long said. “Felt really good off the bat, I kinda knew it, but at the same time, I didn’t because it’s been a while. I’ll be the first one to say I haven’t executed my job this year, so the home run was nice but getting the runs in that we’ve been struggling to get in felt really good.”

It’s fitting that his first home run of the season was a majestic grand slam. 15 games and several frustrating at-bats later, the sophomore slugger finally got to admire one. And admire it he did. A signature bat flip punctuated the blast, one his manager doesn’t want to see become a habit.

“I told him it was okay, given the circumstances,” Bloomquist said. “I just told him he owes me another home run.”

It was a festive night at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Despite the slow start to the year, a sellout crowd of 6,207 packed the yard Friday night. The crowds have generally been good to start the year, but the full and loud stadium marked the official turn to spring and helped power the home team to a much-needed victory.

“It was awesome. Fan support has been great, and playing in front of a sellout on a Friday night is pretty fun,” Bloomquist said. “I know it helps, just having the environment that we get to play in front of, the guys like to play in front of people. That was great today.”

The strong crowd was treated to a dominant performance from Sun Devil starter Adam Tulloch. Tulloch has been Arizona State’s best pitcher, and he showed why on Friday night. The left-hander was electric during his seven innings, consistently touching 93 on the radar gun, riding his fastball to 13 strikeouts in seven innings of work. His three runs allowed came quietly, as the redshirt junior allowed just five base hits.

“If you get ahead in the count, you can do a lot of things,” Tulloch said. “It starts with fastball command; I felt like I was filling it up pretty good tonight. It’s awesome to have a coach like (Bloomquist) have that trust in us to go deep in games; it’s really fun.”

Between Tulloch, Luckham, and Meyer, the starting pitching trio for ASU has been carrying its weight. While the bullpen has often struggled with command issues, the starters are strike throwers, and they seldom waste time on the mound.

“It makes my job easy; I pretty much just stand there and try to look good,” Long said of Tulloch’s performance. “Every night, he goes out and competes, and having that fast pace helps us infielders get into a rhythm. He knows he can just throw it down the middle and let the defense work for him.”

ASU was forced to climb out of an early hole, as three third-inning doubles accounted for the only blips on the radar for Tulloch. In the bottom of the third, the 2-0 USF lead was immediately cut in half when Joe Lampe homered with two outs and the bases empty. His fifth shot of the year went to dead center and got out easily.

The home run wasn’t Lampe’s only contribution to the team, as he was revealed as the unlikely source of Long’s recent hot streak. During last week’s road trip, the Long roomed with Joe Lampe, who has proudly deemed Long’s success since then “the Lampe effect.”

“I was more proud of his homer than mine, honestly,” Lampe said. “The Joe Lampe effect, yeah we’ll see. We’ll see who they put me with on this next road trip, and then we can confirm it.”

A common theme throughout the team’s early season struggles is how close they are to realizing their full potential and just how dangerous they can be when that is finally unleashed. Of the team’s nine losses, five have come by one run. Excluding the 16 run loss to BYU, the other eight losses have come by a combined 14 runs. Teams are only as good as their record, sure, but conventional wisdom says that many of those close losses will break the other way. It won’t happen on accident, though.

“I’ve seen these guys all fall and all spring, and we still really haven’t shown our full potential,” Long said. “We’re going to, I believe it. We have not even come close to what we can be. No offense to those guys over there, but we should have beat them by 20.”

They’ll have two more chances to beat them by at least one when the teams meet Saturday night and Sunday afternoon in a series closing matinee.