Rogers’ big night lifts ASU in a wild season opener
Arizona State did its absolute best to give away its season opener on Friday night. The Sun Devils surrendered a 3-0 lead with four unanswered runs, tied the game, and lost the lead again before a two-run bottom of the ninth capped a dramatic season-opening 6-5 victory at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. By the time Will Rogers laced a walk-off single down the left field line to send everyone home, ASU players, coaches, and fans had experienced a month’s worth of drama in one night. It took its toll on everyone involved.
“Yes. Absolutely, to the nth degree. ” Willie Bloomquist replied when asked if this was one of those games that ages a manager at an increased rate. “On the same token, that’s what makes it fun too. That’s why you get back into this game, though, not from being a player but being a coach now. That was a headache at some points, but at the end of the day, we did enough to get it done.”
ASU did just barely enough. With the game tied in the top of the ninth, reliever Jesse Wainscott worked with a runner on third and two outs. He did his job, inducing a sharp one-hopper right at first baseman Ethan Long. Long took a drop step, tried to play the hop, and completely whiffed, allowing the ball to skirt through his legs and allowing San Diego State to take the lead. In 2022, that would have been a decisive blow. This season, an almost entirely new cast was relatively unphased by the sudden jolt of misfortune.
“I just told him that it happens to the best of us and that he’s going to get an at-bat and win the game for us,” junior infielder Luke Keaschall said. “Hey man, you’re a beast, and you’re going to get a job done.”
The Sun Devils didn’t need Ethan Long in the bottom half of the ninth, but that big hit Keaschall promised from Long ended up coming from him. Sitting on an 0-3 night in his ASU debut, he roped a triple into the left center field gap, scoring pinch-hitting freshman Kien Vu all the way from first to tie the game with nobody out. “It was a mistake pitch,” Keaschall explained. “I was sitting heater, ready for it.”
San Diego State then intentionally walked Ryan Campos and Ethan Long back to back to create a force at every base. After a Jacob Tobias chopper resulted in a force out at the dish, Rogers dug in with the winning run 90 feet away. His walk-off knock is the first of the Willie Bloomquist era.
“I got this feeling in my heart right now; it’s different than anything I’ve been a part of in the past,” Rogers said. “All I can say is that was really fun. I kind of just blacked out there.”
With all the well-deserved attention being heaped upon an impressive transfer class and relentless freshman group early, returners like Rogers have somehow managed to fly under the radar for much of the preseason. Rogers dug into the right-handed batter’s box for his first at-bat of 2023 to lead off the second inning and ensured that would not be the case for long. He blasted a no-doubt shot to left that left his bat at 111 miles per hour, traveled 448 feet, and nearly stopped traffic on Van Buren street well beyond the left field wall. His bomb, and the subsequent modest and appropriate bat flip, have been making the viral rounds on social media all night long. Even if he hasn’t gotten his due praise leading up to the season, he wasn’t about to start collecting it after his big night.
“This was a team win; it wasn’t me; we had everyone contributing,” Rogers said, still catching his breath nearly 30 minutes after his third hit of the night ended the ballgame. “We had freshmen coming up clutch, everyone doing their jobs. I just love baseball so much, and tonight is why.”
Arizona State will enjoy this one, as they should, but Friday night’s Hollywood ending masked some glaring mistakes that allowed SDSU to be in position to win the ballgame. ASU had two runners picked off on the bases and another thrown out trying to stretch a clean single into a far-fetched double. The team committed three errors in the field, none bigger than Long’s gaffe with the game on the line. Two bullpen arms faltered, struggling with command and allowing the Aztecs to mount late rallies that had ASU fans flashing back to the bullpen woes of 2022.
“We’ve got a lot to clean up for tomorrow and beyond,” Bloomquist admitted. “Tonight, we didn’t address any of that; just let them enjoy this one. But they know.”
On the mound, ASU got what it needed out of redshirt junior transfer LHP Ross Dunn to start things off. On a roughly 50-pitch limit, he gave the Sun Devils 2 ⅔ innings of shutout ball in his debut at Phoenix Muni. His stuff wasn’t where it usually is, but as Bloomquist noted, it’s early, and he did what he had to do.
He was followed by junior transfer RHP Owen Stevenson, who was oh so close to finishing his evening with a completely dominant sheet. He tossed scoreless fourth and fifth innings and recorded the first two outs of the sixth before loading the bases with two walks and an infield hit. An Aztec base hit turned a 3-0 ballgame on cruise control into the white knuckler that this game would become. Stevenson escaped the jam on the next pitch, but the damage was done, and it was certainly avoidable.
Transfer RHP Nolan Lebamoff has been touted as an arm that pitching coach Sam Peraza is very excited about, but that didn’t show up on opening night. He recorded just one out in the eighth, walking two and loading the bases. Both SDSU runs scored to take a 4-3 lead in the frame were charged to Lebamoff. “I think he’s better than what we saw tonight,” Bloomquist said of the transfer reliever.
When ASU answered back in the bottom half of that inning, it was in a manner that this program isn’t used to. Small ball. Bloomquist has been adamant that there is plenty of power in this year’s lineup, but the need to squeeze out a run was exemplified when he bunted Isaiah Jackson to move Rogers to second. Rogers then went rogue, taking off for third base on the next pitch.
“He did not have the green light there,” Bloomquist said with a nervous chuckle. “Let’s just say that he’s lucky he was safe.”
“Yeah, I definitely did not have a steal sign in that situation,” Rogers confirmed. “We had a scouting report on that guy that he went to the plate after one look, so I got a good jump. Just barely got in there,” He grinned.
Wyatt Crenshaw lofted a deep fly ball to left two pitches later, allowing Rogers to tag up and score easily. In the most precarious way, ASU had manufactured the game’s tying run.
This was an epic baseball game, with late lead changes, good base running, bad base running, good defense, bad defense, and the first walk-off of Willie Bloomquist’s career. Tomorrow, there are things to address. Tonight, ASU fans can enjoy the program’s most fun win in a long time.
“A game like tonight is huge with an early game tomorrow,” Bloomquist said. “Tonight felt like two wins.”
***
Arizona State will be without UCLA transfer outfielder Nick McLain for the next five to six weeks. Willie Bloomquist announced following Friday night’s season-opening win that McLain has a broken hamate bone and will require surgery that will keep him out for over a month.
This unfortunate development comes on the heels of a freshman season that McLain nearly entirely missed due to a back injury. If all goes according to plan, he’ll be back in time for the Territorial cup series against Arizona beginning on Friday, March 24.
“That was part of the plan going into this offseason; we needed to get depth at a lot of positions and create competition,” Willie Bloomquist said. “Obviously, it hurts to lose Nick, but we feel very confident with (Wyatt) Crenshaw and (Kien) Vu out there in the outfield next to those guys we have out there.”
Just last week, McLain spoke about his excitement surrounding the season opener and how he’s been feeding off the team’s energy during preseason practices.“
This is going to be my first opening day in college; I didn't really have one last year,” McLain explained. “We’ve been putting in a lot of work with the trainers, and just getting my body ready has been a priority.”
The hamate bone is a common stress fracture with baseball players. It sits on the top of the hand and is irritated by the rolling-over motion of a typical swing. It serves no real purpose in the hand, so McLain is having his clean removed in next week’s procedure.
On Friday night, it was Wyatt Crenshaw starting in his place; on Saturday, it may be him, Kien Vu, or another combination that Willie Bloomquist cooks up. ASU added impressive depth in the offseason, and it is already being tested. If the team can produce without McLain for the next month and change, his addition in late March should serve as an injection of energy and talent.
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