A quiet swagger, aura as the kids say now, isn’t something easily achievable. And while he’s usually all business on the field, Nick McLain rarely goes a game without a subtle but noticeable credence.
Born into a baseball family, confidence in his abilities was instilled in him ever since he could pick up a bat. Such a notion gave him supreme confidence in one of Friday’s biggest moments but resulted in a heavenly humbling in a bigger one.
The Sun Devils (25-22, 13-12 Pac-12), fresh off a midweek sweep and seven wins in their last eight games, had just given away an early four-run lead to Washington (17-21-1, 8-14). The usually-reliable Ryan Schiefer surrendered an RBI single in the ninth to squander the lead and put all momentum in the visitor’s dugout. McLain had a chance to take it, and the victory, back with one swing in the bottom half.
Washington closer Grant Cunningham, the Pac-12 leader in ERA, had put two runners on in the inning and just intentionally walked the scorching Kien Vu to get to McLain, who was hitless on the night.
Washington’s gamble would pay off, as the often-collected redshirt sophomore let the magnitude increase to the point of a rally-killing strikeout, eventually snuffing out ASU’s prime scoring chance. And after Phoenix Municipal Stadium propelled a lazy flyball over his head and the right field wall to break the tie an inning later, cracks began to show in McLain’s usually unassailable armor.
“I was kind of scared to go back in (the dugout),” McLain said. “I punched out; the ball just went out over my head.”
Luckily for McLain, he would get a chance at redemption, one that we would not let go. After the baseball gods worked their magic to allow ASU a dramatic rally despite being down to their last strike in consecutive at-bats, the bases were once again full in a tie game for McLain. Facing Cunningham again, McLain did him no favors this time and deposited a 2-1 fastball over the left-field fence for a walk-off grand slam, propelling ASU to a scintillating 11-7 victory.
“That was one of the coolest moments of my baseball career,” McLain said. “Fun to see everyone fired up for me.”
McLain’s magic moment came at a time when he needed it most. Having missed the first few weeks of the 2024 season with a hand injury, McLain hadn’t rediscovered his success down the 2023 stretch, sporting a measly .254 batting average entering this week. While he did hit home runs in both of ASU’s run-rule victories over UC San Diego, bumping his batting average up almost 30 points in the process, fans were still waiting for that signature “he’s back” moment. After his ninth-inning strikeout, one wouldn’t be remiss in thinking it may not come this season at all.
Delivering it one inning later, considering the struggles he endured, had his head coach on the verge of tears.
“Nick McLain comes up with a couple of guys being walked in front of him, carrying the weight of thinking he should’ve won it earlier, walking it off with a grand slam, what an ending,” Willie Bloomquist said with a sniffle. “That was pretty special. We all know what Nick McLain’s capable of doing and so does he. I think that’s where he puts a little too much pressure on himself to be that guy. If he just relaxes and goes and plays and uses his God-given abilities, he’s going to take over.
“That was just pretty cool tonight for him. Couldn’t happen to a greater kid.”
McLain’s finishing swing capped off easily the most tumultuous and tension-filled night at Phoenix Muni this spring.
Taking another Friday start, starter Ben Jacobs continued his strong run of appearances, going through the first four innings of the game without giving up a hit. While misplaced pitches came back to bite him in a trio of home runs in the middle innings, the sophomore southpaw notched his third straight outing of eight or more strikeouts, leaving the mound on Friday with nine.
Jacobs got the support of his offense early. Kien Vu’s blasted a two-run homer, his eighth in 12 games, off a hasty pitching change (UW starter Jared Engman was injured two pitches in). A pair of two-out runs would later be added on one of three Washington errors in the inning. This wouldn’t be the end of defensive miscues for the Huskies, who entered the night as a top-20 team nationally in fielding percentage.
After Sam DeCarlo got the visitors on the board with a two-run shot in the fifth, Brandon Compton got one back in the bottom half, working a prolonged at-bat that ended in an RBI single. Braeden Terry and Cam Clayton’s clouts in the sixth chased Jacobs from the game and pulled UW within one, where Matt Tieding held them into the 8th.
Now, in his second time through the order, Tieding gave up a pair of two-out hits to put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Bloomquist brought in closer Ryan Schiefer an out early, and the junior put out the fire in the inning. However, ASU, who had managed just one run on four hits since its first inning showing, couldn’t provide insurance, and Dylan Osborne took advantage for the game-tying knock just past Jacob Tobias at first.
Bloomquist believed his team’s stagnance for most of the contest is what eventually tipped the scales in Washington’s favor, enabling their comeback.
“You could just kind of feel in the middle innings, where we start having simple innings offensively, four-pitch innings, first pitch outs where we’re just not locked in,” he said. “You just kind of felt the momentum shift.”
Schiefer limited the damage from there, and Washington called on Grant Cunningham, who had allowed just one earned run over his last 11 appearances, to send the game to extras even at five. While he walked Mario Demera and gave up a seeing-eye single to Ryan Campos, the sophomore righty sat down McLain and induced a Tobias flyout to escape the jam.
Bloomquist tried to ride Scheifer through the 10th but to no avail, as AJ Guerrero’s leadoff single set the table for Jeter Ybarra, living up to his namesake in a go-ahead two-run blast. In what McLain described as a “Muni home run,” Ybarra’s ball hung in the air for ages, getting caught up enough in the wind to go from what looked like an easy out to a gut-wrenching goner.
“Honestly, I was a little defeated,” Kien Vu, a notorious optimist, said after the home run. “It does suck. But that does no one any good. I feel like no one was too down. Everyone used this as a ‘watch what we can do’ opportunity.”
Cunningham stayed on for the 10th and worked around Ethan Mendoza’s one-out triple to stake Eamonn Lance as the Sun Devils' final hope, trailing 7-5. Lance fought off several pitches in his lone plate appearance before punching a double in the left field gap, scoring Mendoza and putting the tying run on base.
Steven Ondina tried to jump on a first-pitch fastball but only mustered a popup behind the plate in playable territory for UW catcher Colin Blanchard. In another episode of “Muni Magic,” Blanchard slipped on the perhaps dewey grass and couldn’t recover to stop the ball from plopping innocently on the ground. In even more acts of sorcery, Ondina made hard contact on a 1-2 pitch to straightaway center, but the ball carried on Cooper Whitton and glanced off the wall to tie the game.
“Eamonn Lance with a huge, huge, huge at-bat,” Bloomquist said. “We got a little gift from above, I think, on the popup when the catcher slipped. Regardless of that, the at-bat after that Steven Ondina put together was pretty special.”
Subsequent intentional walks to Campos and Vu put McLain in the same position he was an inning earlier but with a completely different mindset.
“I’ve never second-guessed myself,” McLain said. “I kind of went up there and was like ‘oh God. Can’t do it (strikeout) again.’”
He didn’t, and his opposite outlook wound up providing the final blow in what felt like a heavyweight bout.
“All the ebbs and flows of this game, to come out on top, that’s pretty cool. The guys don’t fold and had every reason to fold if you make excuses or start pointing fingers. But they battled together and pulled it out…Tonight was one of those poetic endings where you can’t make that stuff up. ”
“Game’s still going until the last out is made,” McLain added. “Just keep fighting.”
ASU’s win marks its eighth in its last nine games, continuing to breathe life into the team at its most critical point. With its postseason hopes as unclear as a fly ball’s final landing spot at their home stadium, the Sun Devils see Friday’s win, its first this season in extra innings, as an example of this team’s capabilities.
“They are starting to believe in there that they can do this thing,” Bloomquist said of his players. “That’s when you become dangerous. I don’t love the situation we’re in, but I like the mentality and the vibe of what’s going on in that clubhouse right now. They also believe and know that they are capable of doing something special, writing the script here at the end of the season when everybody wrote us off.”
“We all believe in there that something special can happen. Don’t let the Devils get hot.”
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