Four errors leading to ten unearned gift UCI a win

Luke Keaschall read the sharp ground ball perfectly off the bat. With two outs and a runner on second in the top of the third, he shuffled once and a half to his right and set his feet to handle a tricky in-between hop. To this point, the second baseman had done everything right. Then, he pulled up early, anticipating a bigger hop that never came. The ball shot through his legs and into right center field, allowing UC Irvine to plate its sixth run of the ballgame and the sixth to cross home plate with two outs.

Scoring with two outs, and scoring with the aid of poor defense on the part of ASU, was all UC Irvine did in Friday night’s series-opening 16-6 trouncing of the Sun Devils. 14 of their 16 runs were tallied with two outs, and a jaw-dropping 10 of those 15 were unearned. Arizona State didn’t just shoot itself in the foot tonight; it dropped an atom bomb on its foot.

“In my mind, that’s four games in a row where we’ve kind of beat ourselves,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said after taking a moment to look over the ugly stat sheet. “We have a chance to be okay if we quit beating ourselves. At the end of the day, when you don’t do the fundamental thing right, you get exposed.”

Arizona State has played poorly in each of its last four games, but they were able to find a way to win one of those on Wednesday with a comeback victory over North Dakota State. “We should have four losses,” Ryan Campos said matter of factly. “That should have been a loss.”

Bloomquist echoed the sentiment, correcting himself after saying that ASU had lost its last four games. “Felt like a loss.”

The two-out massacre began in the first, although it didn’t become costly. After Dunn recorded the first two outs of the ballgame with ease, a harmless two-hopper was poked toward shortstop. Luke Hill, who has turned in a clean sheet on defense through the season’s first eight games, pulled up early and allowed the routine grounder through his legs. Dunn overcame that inning extending mistake, but he wouldn’t be as fortunate in the following two.

“You’re not going to be perfect,” Bloomquist conceded. “But to have a couple of ground balls go right through our wickets, that’s stuff that’s just embarrassing. 10 unearned runs? That’s pretty tough to do at this level, but we found a way to do it tonight.”

Irvine staged a five-run, two-out rally in the top of the second. With ASU on top 1-0, after a trio of two-out singles in the bottom of the first had given it the lead, Dunn was one pitch away from getting out of the second with that lead when he allowed an RBI base hit to left. One at-bat later, he was a fraction of an inch off the plate with a would-be inning ending third strike that was called a ball. His next offering was ripped over Isaiah Jackson’s head in center field for a three-run triple. Only after another two-out RBI knock was Dunn able to mercifully end the top half of the second.

“I don’t know exactly what pitch it was, but I know there was some complaining and moaning over something,” Bloomquist said. “We gotta be a little bit better than that. Even if it was (missed), okay, execute the next one. You can’t let that take you out of your game.”

ASU fans looking for a reprieve in the top of the third would be sorely disappointed. After Jackson hit his second home run of the year, a solo shot to bring ASU within three runs, the ensuing inning was somehow worse for Dunn and the defense. Keaschall’s unfortunate error allowed the inning from hell to take its ugly shape. Five more runs, all unearned, paraded across the plate on a home run, a hit by pitch, and a ground rule double. The confines of Phoenix Muni actually saved ASU from a seventh third-inning run scoring.

Bloomquist emphasized a lack of concentration when asked why he thought his team’s defense was so bad on Friday after being so good through the season’s first eight games. Matt Tieding relieved Dunn in the third, and issued a walk, and allowed a base hit before the ground rule double. He would settle down in the middle innings. After retiring nine straight Anteaters to enable his team to crawl back into the game, reliever Matt Tieding faltered in the top of the seventh. He walked the leadoff man before inducing a cherry hop comebacker that had 1-6-3 double play written all over it. Tieding sailed the left of the bag and into center field. A run scored one batter later on a fielder’s choice; then the floodgates opened back up. Christian Bodlovich came in to clean up the mess Tieding left, and he was nearly successful. A strikeout preceded a back-breaking two-out wild pitch, allowing another Anteater to cross the plate. He then surrendered a two-run homer, his second in as many games.

The errors were plenty, but the pitching staff didn’t execute time and time again in two out situations on Friday night. Bloomquist summed up the mistakes as a simple lack of concentration.

“I know we can catch the ball with our foot on the bag and make a throw 47 feet to second base from the pitcher’s mound,” he lamented. “If you told me we can’t do those things, I’d call you a liar. It was a lack of concentration.”

There was a comeback effort in the middle innings by Arizona State, one that felt similar to Wednesday’s heroic effort. Ryan Campos and Jacob Tobias each cranked their second home runs of the season, both solo shots, to make Irvine nervous. Ultimately, it wasn’t close to enough, but ASU has shown so far that, much like in recent years, they can swing it with the best. Early on, the pitching staff was carrying quiet bats, but in its last few games, the bats have been doing the heavy lifting while the pitching falters in a much more traditional Arizona State fashion. After allowing just 16 total runs in its first five games, ASU has surrendered a shocking 40 in its last three.

“We got several guys who have some growing up to do,” Bloomquist said.

Game Notes

Bloomquist wasn’t shy about his frustration with his group as a whole, which is no surprise after a game like this one. He touched on some administrative things, like when he and his staff are planning on using Owen Stevenson this weekend, if at all. If he’s not used on Saturday or Sunday, Bloomquist said ASU would then “have a darn good starter at Oklahoma State.” ASU plays two in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

He continued about Stevenson: “Make no mistake, he’s a big part of what we’re doing. He’s capable of being a starter, and he’s capable of starting on Friday night, so that might be a role for him later.” Hmm.

With an 0-3 night, freshman third baseman Nu’u Contrades continued his rough beginning to his collegiate career at the dish. Bumps in the road are to be expected, but the power and other hit tools Contrades showcased in the fall and preseason have yet to show. He plays outstanding defense at third base, but there will come a point where that will no longer outweigh the hole that is his spot in the order right now. Contrades is an elite talent with an incredibly bright future, but like anyone else, his starting job isn’t guaranteed. Bloomquist has been patient, as he should be with a true freshman who earned a starting role, but Contrades will need to pick it up at the plate in order to justify his continued starting spot.

Since returning from a ghastly series at Mississippi State in which he struck out eight times and didn’t record a hit, Isaiah Jackson is 4-5 with three walks. It’s safe to say he’s got his legs underneath him again. His home run on Friday night left his bat at 106 miles per hour.

If tonight’s game were played with two out innings, Arizona State would have won 4-2. It lost 16-6.

These two teams are back in action on Saturday afternoon, with game two getting underway just after 1 p.m.

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