Near the top of the long list of Arizona State’s struggles thus far in 2022 is its inability to cash in on scoring opportunities in tight games and add to leads. Bloomquist has often sounded like a broken record when harping on the importance of this issue, maintaining that his group is very close to putting those struggles behind them. We saw exactly what he meant on Friday night, as ASU put up 12 runs on 17 hits en route to a comfortable 12-5 victory over Washington. After taking marginal leads of 5-3 and 6-4, the Sun Devils were not satisfied.
“We had three strikeouts and seven walks. When you put the ball in play, good things tend to happen,” Willie Bloomquist said. “We got out home runned today, but home runs don’t win games offenses win games. We put together some great at-bats.”
ASU scored three runs in the third, three runs in the fourth, and one run in each of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. In a season where they often haven’t executed in big run scoring opportunities, execute was all they did on Friday night.
If Adam Tulloch has been the ace during the first five weeks of the season, Kyle Luckham has been the horse. With Tulloch getting some midweek innings against GCU, Luckham got his first Friday night start of the year in the Washington opener, and did what he’s done all year, gave the Sun Devils a chance to win.
“Luck didn’t have his best stuff today, but he competed,” Bloomquist said. “He got us through five; you don’t always have to have your best stuff but to keep your team in it and keep innings small, that’s a recipe for good things to happen.”
The freshmen starred offensively for Arizona State tonight. Jacob Tobias went 4-5 with a home run and drove in four of the team’s 12 runs. His career night overshadowed that of fellow freshman catcher Ryan Campos, who picked up two hits and an RBI of his own. Whether it’s Tobias, Campos, Alex Champagne, or Will Rogers, the freshmen have been huge for the Sun Devils this year. They’re a mature bunch and understand the importance of staying even-keeled.
“We treat every game the same; you can’t treat days like this like they’re too big or you’ll get in over your head,” Tobias said. “We were just passing the torch tonight, and that’s exactly what we need to do to win games.”
Tobias’s production might be surprising to some, but his teammates knew he would be putting barrels on the ball often.
“We watched him rake all fall and into the spring, and it’s showing up now,” Kai Murphy said.
“We talked after the game, and we’ll talk again tomorrow,” Conor Davis said when asked about his close relationship with Tobias. “You guys know Toby; he’s a smiley and always happy type kid. He comes in with a great attitude, and I know he’ll come with that tomorrow and the next day.”
Everyone involved with the team preached trust in the struggling bullpen early in the season. Even after multiple late leads were coughed up by the Devils’ pen, pitching coach Sam Peraza and the relievers themselves were steadfast in their belief that the tide would turn. It was only a matter of when, and it looks as though that time is now. Jacob Walker was the headliner tonight, taking over for Luckham in the sixth and cruising for four innings to finish the game. His only run of the evening came off the bat of the first batter he faced when Washington’s Jacob Snyder hit his second home run of the game to lead off the sixth.
“Jacob just kind of methodically goes out and gets outs. He’s nothing flashy, won’t light up the radar gun, he just gets outs,” Bloomquist said. “He doesn’t worry about his role; he doesn’t care. He just wants the ball. If I needed him to pitch tomorrow, he’d probably say he’s ready to go.”
ASU will look to take the series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 pm. Bloomquist indicated that with Tulloch slated for Sunday, Tyler Meyer will get the ball on Saturday in the sweltering Tempe heat.
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