It wasn’t going to take much for Arizona State right-hander Kyle Luckham to improve upon his previous start. During last weekend’s pitching struggle in Palo Alto, Luckham allowed five earned runs before an errant fastball provided him a speedy ejection.
On Friday, the swiftness of Luckham’s exit from the Stanford contest was rivaled by the efficiency of his pitching. In ASU's 8-2 win he twice worked himself into a jam – loading the bases full of Trojans in the second and seventh innings – and twice he escaped without USC doing any damage.
“Knew those were big pitches right there that I needed to make,” Luckham said after ending his night with a bases-loaded strikeout of Adrian Colon-Rosado on his 100th pitch. “In the past, I’ve not gotten those pitches there, so I just kind of dug down and trusted the training there, knew I had nine versus one right there, and knew I was going to get them out.”
In adverse situations, Luckham escaped each time by filling the zone with strikes. Of his 100 pitches thrown, 73 were strikes, a number that impressed head coach Willie Bloomquist.
“He didn’t beat himself,” Bloomquist said of Luckham after the Fullerton, California, native threw seven innings without allowing a walk. “I think there’s some kind of correlation between not walking anybody and not giving up a big inning. When he has his good performances, it’s usually a result of pounding the strike zone, not beating himself, and he did that tonight outstanding.”
Both the second and seventh innings ended similarly. In the second, Luckham worked ahead in the count to USC’s Johnny Olmstead and struck the Trojan third baseman out looking with an 0-2 fastball on the outside corner. In the seventh, Luckham got ahead in the count against Colon-Rosado, USC’s leader in batting average at .377, and struck the lefty out swinging with a 1-2 breaking ball down and in.
“He got into a couple of sticky situations, but he was able to keep his composure and make pitches,” Bloomquist said. “In big moments, you’ve got to trust your stuff and just make pitches, and he did.”
After USC second baseman Tyresse Hunter took advantage of one of Luckham’s major mistakes of the night and tied the game with a solo home run in the third inning, ASU responded an inning later and re-took the lead for the remainder of the ballgame.
At the plate, the Sun Devils went to work early, swinging early in the count with great frequency. In the fourth inning – when ASU sent eight to the plate – the Sun Devils ambushed USC right-hander Tyler Stromsborg.
“I just wanted to be on attack all night,” said graduate student first baseman Conor Davis, who went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in ASU's victory, including an RBI single in the go-ahead fourth inning. “First AB, he hung a change-up, and I wasn’t going to let that one go; the next AB, I just got right back to the fastball.”
None of the first five batters of the inning for ASU saw more than two pitches, as the group tallied four singles and two runs. First baseman Conor Davis, catcher Ryan Campos and designated hitter Jacob Tobias each swung at the first pitch, with Davis and Tobias earning an RBI apiece for their work.
“I think there’s a difference between swinging wildly and swinging aggressively,” Bloomquist said of the early count swings from the Sun Devils. “We love our guys being aggressive when the fastball is over the plate. If the guy is going to lay it in there, go ahead, we want them hacking. Or if you’re sitting on breaking ball and he leaves it up, go ahead.
“As long as you’re sitting and have a plan of attack when you’re up there, to me that’s the important part. I have no problem with swinging at first pitches as long as you have the aggressive thought process and you don’t deviate from it… They are learning, and they are getting better and better each day.”
When Luckham’s night came to a close, the redshirt junior had thrown seven innings allowing two earned runs while striking out seven and walking none.
Sophomore third baseman Ethan Long continued to have success against the Trojans, following a three-run home run on Thursday night with more offensive assistance for the Sun Devils on Friday. After working the count full only to fly out in his fifth-inning plate appearance, Long went first pitch hunting in the seventh, delivering a 405-foot two-run home run that gave Arizona State some loud insurance and a 6-2 lead.
“We always just want to keep our foot on the gas no matter what,” said Long after producing his seventh home run of the season following flyouts in the fourth and fifth innings. “I had one good swing. I felt good in the box, and I was getting upset because I kept swinging and hitting the bottom of the ball. I knew I was going to get one at some point, but I just had to make the adjustment and get more on top of the ball.”
With Arizona State honoring program legend Dustin Pedroia with his own bobblehead night, Long’s home run was sent in the direction of the signage in left-center field that bears the former ASU infielder’s name and number. In the eighth, redshirt sophomore right fielder Kai Murphy extended the ASU lead with his third home run, another two-run shot that gave ASU the 8-2 lead that would stand as the final score.
Following pep talks from Barry Bonds and the aforementioned Pedroia, ASU has scored 53 runs in its last four games. Bloomquist joked afterward of needing to call up other Sun Devil alums like Andre Ethier and Kole Calhoun in hopes of inspiring similar performances in the future.
The ASU bullpen took over in the eighth with Christian Bodlovich throwing a scoreless inning and Brock Peery and Chase Webster each getting outs in the ninth to secure the win. Consecutive wins over the Trojans give ASU a 13-10 home record and moves the Sun Devils to 3-0 in Pac-12 series at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
“It’s just a momentum builder for us,” said Davis. “Everybody is still sleeping on us, and that’s OK; we want to be the underdogs, honestly. We’re going to keep fighting until the very last weekend of the regular season, and this win this weekend – we’re satisfied, but we need to get one more tomorrow.”
