Through six innings, Arizona State and Ohio State were knotted up 4-4, with neither team able to grab much of an edge. The next two innings is where it fell apart for ASU; the bullpen gave up two runs, and the bats were only able to get a run back heading into the ninth. The situation was grim for the Sun Devils with two outs and a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth down 6-5. However, a walk and infield single loaded the bases for redshirt sophomore left fielder Brandon Compton.
On a 1-1 count, Compton crushed a line drive out to center field, but right toward a Buckeye. As the center fielder lined up the game-winning catch and the crowd held its breath, the setting sun over Phoenix Municipal Stadium caught his eyes just enough to misread the ball. Compton was the hero with a walk-off double, and Arizona State (2-0) escaped with a 7-6 victory and have a chance to complete the sweep over Ohio State (0-2) tomorrow afternoon.
“I’m really happy and proud of these guys,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “They’re continuing to grind these out. We haven’t played our best baseball, but it’s only the first couple of games. We kept putting ABs together and played hard all the way to the finish line, and good things happened. A sign of a good team is when they can pull through late, and we had a little sunshine to help us out there.”
After an 0-4 outing in the first game, Compton answered the call in game two. In his first at-bat, he tattooed a ball 445 feet over the right-centerfield wall to give ASU an early 2-1 lead. The sophomore’s work ethic over his time in Tempe is one of the things that stands out to Bloomquist the most.
“That kid just works his tail off,” Bloomquist recognized. “He continues to improve every day he’s out there. He’s a workaholic, and he cares more than anybody. All the success he gets is well-deserved and earned. He’s not one of those guys who rolls out of bed and just uses his talent; he puts in the hours.
Senior righty Jack Martinez got the starting nod on the mound today, and he left his mark on the game. In his debut as a Sun Devil, Martinez went 5 ⅓ innings, striking out eight batters and letting in four runs. While he has a fastball that reaches the mid-90s, his arsenal of offspeed pitches, specifically the changeup, had batters fooled all afternoon. With his pitch count rising into the high 80s, Bloomquist had to make the decision to pull the senior and look to his bullpen.
“He threw the ball outstanding,” Bloomquist voiced. “He gave up a couple of early runs, but the ball was coming out hot, and he had a very good changeup behind it. He wanted to keep going, but I’m very cautious about pitch count early in the season. We need these guys late in the year, and just keeping them healthy overall is important. Their careers are in my hands, and I don’t want to take that lightly.”
The bullpen was effective at times, but the seventh and eighth innings were two to forget. Both runs scored by the Buckeyes were on wild pitches, as sophomore lefty Cole Carlon and freshman lefty Easton Barrett both struggled with their location and control. Junior lefty Sean Fitzpatrick relieved Barrett in the eighth, and it was smooth sailing after. Fitzpatrick and sophomore righty Wyatt Halvorson closed out the game, not giving up a single baserunner. Halvorson struck out two of three batters faced in the ninth, picking up the win.
With another game still left in the series and another game against Austin Peay on Monday, the depth of the pitching staff Bloomquist boasted about will be tested. Outside of the two starters, Bloomquist called 10 different pitchers onto the mound between the first two games, with Fitzpatrick playing in both games. While he announced after the press conference that sophomore righty Jaden Alba will start Sunday’s game, the rotation of arms he can call upon the next two games has shrunk.
“We still have some cavalry behind him (Alba),” Bloomquist assured. “We burned through a lot of arms, but we still have plenty of guys we can get out there. A lot of the guys that threw Friday will be ready to go tomorrow, but we have another game on Monday. We have to save some bullets for that game if we can, but I think we’re still in pretty good shape.”
Ohio State’s baserunning was on point in the first two games, stealing eight bases through Friday and Saturday. Bloomquist was much more aggressive on the base paths himself today, but the Sun Devils ended up getting caught stealing three times out of four attempts.
The most notable attempt came in the seventh when junior Kien Vu tried to steal home in a 4-4 game but was tagged out by half a step. Vu was nearly halfway down the base path on the pitch before with no one covering third and a lefty on the mound, but he couldn’t beat the throw to the plate in time to take the lead.
“I gave him (Vu) the green light to steal home,” Bloomquist pronounced. “I probably should have done it on the pitch before when they weren’t paying attention, but there wasn’t a miscommunication there. I was hoping he was going to go when the pitcher was coming to set versus letting him get set. Sometimes, you roll the dice and lose, but I’d do it again.”
The three-headed monster of catchers struck again, but this time,e it was redshirt freshman catcher Brody Briggs. After catching for the bullpen all of last year and not seeing the field, Briggs went 3-for-4 in his first collegiate game, starting the ninth-inning rally with a one-out single. His work ethic won him the team’s Alvin Davis Leadership Award at last season’s banquet, and his hard work translated to the field today.
“I was so excited to see him (Briggs) out there,” Bloomquist expressed. “Here’s a kid that came here from Oklahoma to Tempe, redshirted last year, and did nothing but catch a million bullpens. But he never said a word about it and continued to work hard. He tries to be a leader of sorts out there, and he came up huge in his first start.”
The Sun Devils' long ball has been good in the first two games, but throughout the season, the smarter team will win games. With a mix of veterans and youth on this team, Bloomquist and his staff must prepare the players as best they can. So far, the players have fared well.
“The talent across the board has been good,” Bloomquist noted. “It’s our job as coaches to teach them the game of college baseball. You’re going to get exposed if you have a weakness, and every team we scheduled has a very good coaching staff. It’s going to challenge us to be better and teach our guys how to do things the right way, and in a way, that’s going to catapult them and their professional careers one day.”
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