Arizona State’s offense had scored in the first inning in its first three games against Ohio State but came to a halt against Austin Peay. The Govs got out to an early 3-0 lead after sophomore righty Rohan Lettow allowed a run in three of four innings. With ASU’s bats going cold, the pitching staff was forced to step up to keep its opening weekend record perfect.

The Sun Devils (4-0) held the Govs (1-3) scoreless the rest of the game, as the bullpen allowed just two hits in 5 ⅓ innings. A five spot in the fifth helped ASU take a 5-3 lead, and neither team scored from that point on. The Sun Devils start the season with four consecutive victories, winning in all kinds of ways.

“They did a really good job,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Lettow did a good job starting us off, gave up a few runs, wasn't as sharp as he wanted to be, but battled and got us through three and two-thirds innings. Koger came in and walked a couple of guys, which is uncharacteristic, but threw the ball well after that.”

Saturday’s game saw redshirt sophomore outfielder Brandon Compton knock a walk-off double to win 7-6. Then, ASU turned around and dropped 17 runs on the Buckeyes in a 17-10 win for a series sweep. Today, the pitchers had their time to shine when the offense wasn’t as potent as in the previous three games, and they delivered.

After going 0-for-4 on Opening Day, Compton has responded with three multi-RBI games, with his 2 RBI single against the Govs turning out to be the difference in this game. Through four contests, Compton is hitting .462 with two homers and nine RBIs while drawing five walks, all team highs.

Outside of Lettow, all three Sun Devil pitchers that came out of the bullpen had already played a game against Ohio State. Redshirt senior righty Jonah Giblin came in relief once Lettow let in his third run and shut down the Govs immediately. In three innings of relief, Giblin struck out four batters while only giving up a single hit.

Sophomore lefty Cole Carlon came in after Giblin but found himself in quite the situation early on. Giblin had left runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the seventh; Carlon stepped onto the mound and forced a groundout to end the inning, then retired three straight batters in the eighth after allowing a leadoff double. Senior righty Will Koger took the mound in the ninth, earning his second save after stranding two runners and forcing a flyout.

The fans at Phoenix Municipal Stadium set a new Opening Weekend attendance record with 10,570 total fans through the first three games. With a new conference and one of the more talented teams in recent memory being brought to the table, the fans displayed their interest. The Sun Devils will play 14 of their first 16 games at home to begin the season, and so far, the fans have responded positively.

“Big thank you to the fans for coming out this weekend,” Bloomquist expressed. “Even today was a nice crowd for being a Monday afternoon, and it's been helpful, not only for our guys to get a little energy, but it's great to play in front of fans. We'll do our best to play a good brand of baseball for them and entertain them while they're here.”

Through the first four games, the players have backed up their talk about the connection this group has. With plenty of new faces and challenges in their face, ASU has stepped up in the big moments so far. While it won’t be pretty at times with a lot of talented teams on its schedule in the first month of the season, the chemistry has been on display when needed.

“I'm not worried about them being a team,” Bloomquist voiced. “They're a pretty tight-knit group in there, so that part of it is never an issue, hasn't been an issue. We don't recruit turds, we recruit good kids and every once in a while we swing and miss, but not very often. We try to do our homework and bring in kids that are academically oriented, good citizens, and good kids that want to work hard and get better.”

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