PHOENIX - As Luke Hill trotted around the bases after a three-run home run in the top of the eighth, it looked as though a late push by ASU would be too little too late. His third bomb of the season, a towering no-doubter to left field, made a 9-2 game slightly more intriguing at 9-5. As it turned out, it was the fracture in the dam that ignited a furious nine-run eighth-inning Sun Devil rally. Arizona State (24-9) brought 14 men to the plate, scoring all nine of its runs on two-strike counts and five of them with two outs. The most improbable win of what is becoming a very special season is ASU’s 18th win in its last 20 games and sixth in a row.
Hill’s three-run homer wasn’t his last word in that monstrous eighth frame. He came up again, this time with the game having just been tied, and roped a two-run single that put the Sun Devils ahead for good. He drove in five runs in the inning.
“I’ve had games like that, but definitely not an inning,” Hill laughed. “It all started with the two leadoff guys passing the baton. Then he hung it, and I did damage with it. Then we just kept going as a team, and the next thing I know, it comes back to me. I hit it up the middle and did my job.”
It would have been so easy, so understandable even, for ASU to pack it in during the middle innings on Tuesday night. This game had all the makings of a midweek letdown until it didn’t. This Arizona State team is different. Last week, a three-run ninth inning in the series opener against Washington State snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Tonight, half of the fourth-largest crowd in GCU history (4,311) was heading for the exits following the seventh-inning stretch. It’s just the latest win that makes you shake your head in awe of the resilience and fight this ASU team possesses.
“It happened so fast; I was too caught up with being irritable about the way we played for six innings,” Bloomquist said when asked how enjoyable the eighth inning rally was. “Hopefully, we can show them from this game, you can see what happens when you don’t come to play, and you can see what happens when you do.
“The message to our guys is regardless of the score; you keep grinding. You never know what can happen,” a typically measured Willie Bloomquist explained following the dramatic win. “Pass the torch; you can’t put up a nine spot by yourself. You have to keep putting together good at-bats, and that’s probably the best display I’ve seen of that all year.”
Hill’s eighth-inning heroics may have played the most pivotal role in turning the game, but Arizona State’s headline performer was a sophomore transfer making his collegiate debut at long last. Nick McLain missed his entire freshman season at UCLA with a back injury. He missed the first seven weeks of this season with a broken hamate bone in his left hand. This kid, who has been billed by some as perhaps the best of the incredibly talented trio of McLain brothers, dug into the box on Tuesday night in a real, meaningful baseball game for the first time in nearly two years. And all he did was go 3-6, drive in four runs, homered, and recorded an outfield assist in his debut. His ninth-inning two-run shot provided insurance for ASU, a line drive blast that rocketed off McLain’s bat at 111 MPH and barely snuck over the right field wall just inside the foul pole.
“Honestly, on the bus, I was a little nervous. After I threw that guy out, I was good to go; it was a really exciting day,” McLain said with a wide grin. “I’ve been waiting to play for a year and a half. There was a ton of fight in the guys tonight. Very fun.”
Along with a seven-run comeback comes the reality of what caused a seven-run deficit. Willie Bloomquist has kept the same demeanor all year; even as the wins continue to stack up for his beloved alma mater, his attitude remains the same. The job is far from finished.
“If I’m being transparent, I was really disappointed with the way we played the first six innings of this game. We were not ready to play, and that’s the negative part,” Bloomquist lamented. “The positive side is that you’re never out of a game. These guys know better than to cash it in.”
Maybe it was a record-high temperature. Perhaps it was a rankings debut hangover. And it’s possible that despite saying all the right things at every possible opportunity, Arizona State had begun to look ahead to a big weekend battle with Washington. Whatever it was, Arizona State didn’t look anything like the No.22 ranked team it had been over the last month for the first six innings on Tuesday night. Matt Tieding got the ball to start for ASU. It was clear from the jump that Tieding didn’t have his best stuff. He wasn’t helped by some bad luck, as an infield single and a bang bang call went the Lopes’ way in the home half of the first. GCU scored in each of the first four innings and built a 7-0 lead.
ASU left men on base in five of the first six innings, scoring just twice. The Sun Devils struggled to put together quality at-bats when they needed it most until the floodgates were opened in the top of the eighth.
“I looked up and said, ‘Hey, we’re one hit away from tying this,” Bloomquist recalled. “Then hey, we took the lead. It was a jolt of excitement for sure.”
As bleak as things looked, some foresaw a massive comeback.
“Coaches were telling us to just stay with our approach,” Hill said. “Keaschall called it. He said, “Boys, when the sun goes down, we’re scoring 20.”
They didn’t quite reach that prediction, but 13 proved to be enough. Bloomquist went with his new favorite formula for the eighth and ninth: Pivaroff and Stevenson. The door slammed shut. Six straight wins, 18 of 20. ASU is 24-9, and it feels like half of those 24 wouldn’t have been victories in 2022.
“It was seven innings of pulling my hair out,” Bloomquist said. “In the end, I was excited for the guys. They didn’t quit.”
Game Notes:
There were bright spots during the awful first six innings, of course. One was the continued emergence of Isaiah Jackson as a true college hitter. He provided two of what ended up being very few highlights at the plate for Arizona State prior to the eighth inning. He smacked two doubles, including an RBI double halfway up the left field wall. He seems to be finding it at the right time.
Christian Bodlovich has been banished from the bullpen rotation since he played a critical role in ASU’s late game collapse at Utah on March 19. The poor outing was the straw that broke the camel’s back after an uncharacteristically bad start to the season. Until Tuesday night, he hadn’t gotten back into a ballgame. His stuff looked better when he entered, but a pair of doubles chased him before he could finish an inning.
Ryan Campos was removed from the game after a big top of the eighth inning. Willie Bloomquist said it was precautionary after Campos told him he felt something in his side. “When he says he feels something, it’s there.”
ASU is back in action on Friday in Seattle as they begin a three-game series at Washington.
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