After dropping the first game of the series on Friday Night 7-8 in a ninth-inning collapse, Arizona State bounced back with a convincing 12-5 victory and put itself in position to win the series on Sunday. Oral Roberts pitcher junior lefty Trent Martin gave up a leadoff homer to junior third baseman Nu’u Contrades on the first pitch in the bottom of the first and was visibly shaken the rest of the way.
ASU (6-1) put up at least one run in all but one inning, cruising to a 9-2 victory over the Golden Eagles (4-2). Oral Roberts struggled to put up runs on the board with plenty of opportunities, and the Sun Devils continued to grow their lead and put Oral Roberts in a hole too deep to climb out of. ASU will have a very quick turnaround, though, heading to Los Angeles to visit old Pac-12 foe UCLA for a midweek series.
“They responded really well these past two games,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “They’re finding different ways too, some by the long ball and some by baserunning. Staying aggressive is going to be important to continue to move on so that we’re not one-dimensional.”
Sophomore righty Jaden Alba received the starting nod for the second straight Sunday but quickly found himself in a sticky situation. The first three batters he faced all reached first base safely, loading the bases with nobody out. A lineout to third and two strikeouts got him out of the jam, and through five innings, he only allowed two runs off six hits.
As a whole, the pitching staff struck out 12 batters, and the bullpen didn’t allow a single run. With the UCLA series beginning Tuesday, Bloomquist now has the benefit of a plethora of arms to choose from between the two games. He announced that freshman lefty Easton Barrett will start Tuesday’s game, but outside of that, there’s no telling who could take the mound.
“We’re going to need options to step up and eat innings for us,” Bloomquist voiced. “We have a lot of guys that are capable of throwing well that didn’t get into games this weekend, but they’ll be hot for the midweek games. The challenge is keeping these guys sharp but also putting them in the right situations.”
With the offense adding at least one insurance run in every inning except the third, Alba and the rest of the bullpen’s confidence grew with each swing of the bat. The complementary play between both sides of the ball led to ASU playing freely, putting even more pressure on ORU’s pitching staff and forcing errors.
“When you do the little things right, it makes the game a lot easier,” senior first baseman Jacob Tobias stated. “When we stick to our game, the other team might fumble a bit. We know we’re in a good spot, and we’ll be able to continue to roll, do our thing, and have good results.”
The bats were active throughout the game, with six homers on eight hits, but ASU's plate discipline translated to baserunning. The Sun Devils drew a season-high 10 walks, stole four bases, and forced four throwing errors, three of which were pitchers' pickoff attempts.
“Part of the offensive approach is making sure we get pitches that we can do damage with,” Bloomquist acknowledged. “Guys at the bottom of the lineup were finding ways to get on base, and those are big. That rolls over to the top, and we’re able to continue to put runners on bases and make things happen. They’ve stuck pretty well to their plate discipline, which is good to see.”
Junior right fielder Kien Vu hit two of the six bombs today, his first coming in the sixth inning. Bloomquist pulled him aside for 30 seconds before the at-bat, and two pitches later, Vu sent a ball over the left field wall into the dirt hillside behind the opposing bullpen. While originally it looked like Bloomquist was giving advice to him, it was actually Vu calling his shot.
“I could easily say I told Kien to hit a homer to left-center,” Bloomquist joked. “I asked Kien what his approach was, and he said, ‘I’m going to hit a homer to left-center,’ and I said, ‘ok.’ the whole reason I went out there was to stall and get (Cole) Carlon ready in the bullpen, but it was kind of ironic that Kien told me he was going to do that.”
The Bruins and the Sun Devils have their fair share of memories as conference opponents in the Pac-12, but this will be the first time the two will play out of conference, with UCLA in the Big 10 and ASU in the Big 12. As someone who keenly remembers the rivalry between the teams and the Sun Devils hosting USC later in the season, Bloomquist preached on the importance of renewing old rivalries.
“We’ve had such good rivalries over the years with a lot of these schools,” Bloomquist voiced. “To let them just die would be kind of a shame. On the other hand, we’ve got to schedule some wins in there, and there are no easy wins from former Pac-12 teams. But I think it’s important to continue scheduling California teams, especially because we recruit heavily from there.”
The Sun Devils were just a few outs away from starting the season 7-0 against teams that will find success throughout their seasons, but this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the level of competition ASU will see this year. While the Big 12 is one of the more talented conferences in the country, even the nonconference schedule has challenges. For Bloomquist and his squad, this will help them start conference play with a head of steam, but it could also highlight weak spots that teams can capitalize on.
“It’s not going to get any easier,” Bloomquist remarked. “The competition we’ve played are teams that will get a lot of games in their conferences. They’ve been a good challenge for us, but we can’t get complacent on that. We have areas that we can improve and get better at, and that will help continue to create our identity on who we are and what we want to be.”
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