The latter half of the Pac-12 season has not been kind to the Sun Devils and the Bruins. And the misery loves company narrative certainly applies this weekend at Phoenix Municipal Stadium in a three-game set to close out the 2023 regular season. Arizona State has lost six in a row and is coming off its second straight sweep at USC. UCLA has been riddled with injuries since the midway point of the season and has dropped its last three series, just like ASU. To say that each team is anxious to come away with a series win this weekend would be a gross understatement.
Two weekends ago, Cal swept the Bruins in Los Angeles, marking the first time The Golden Bears had swept the Bruins in over 30 years. This past weekend, Oregon State visited Westwood and took two of three from a reeling squad. At this point, John Savage’s perennially contending program is on the outside, looking to qualify for the NCAA tournament’s field of 64.
The Sun Devils aren’t fairing much better. ASU has been in an unmitigated plummet since it traveled for a series at Oregon on April 27. Its lone win in a nine-game gauntlet against the Ducks, Stanford, and USC came in the Sunday finale in Eugene on April 30. The Sun Devils have talked all season long about staying the course and ensuring they are playing their best baseball at the right time, i.e., in the decisive month of May. Their performance has been anything but that, struggling during a critical juncture in a once-promising campaign, still in search of their first win this month.
Only one Bruin, Duce Gourson, is hitting above .300 as UCLA limps to the finish line. His 57 hits lead the team. Darius Perry and Kyle Karros are also dangerous bats in the blue and gold lineup; Perry has largely underachieved in what should have been a breakout sophomore season. An expected power bat, his OPS sits at a measly .786. He’s homered just three times and doubled six. Kyle Karros, son of former major league infielder Eric Karros, has endured a similar puzzling lack of power in 2023. He has left the yard just five times while doubling eight. He’s been known as a player with a disciplined eye, but the walks haven’t been there either. Just 21 free passes for Karros so far.
JonJon Vaughns leads the team in home runs with nine. He was a thorn in Willie Bloomquist’s side last season, but a .224 average has kept him from soaring up draft boards like many expected he would. His speed is a professional asset. Ryan Campos and the ASU pitchers will have to work hard to keep him from making Phoenix Muni into a track meet whenever he reaches base this weekend.
On the mound, UCLA has had to deal with the crippling loss of Alonzo Treadwell, who had figured to be one of the conference’s best arms this season. Without Treadwell, Savage has leaned heavily on Austin Kelly and Jake Brooks. The two have combined to toss 140 innings. Kelly’s 3.04 ERA leads the way. He’s struck out 83 batters in 71 innings this season while walking just 24. He’s allowed just six homers. Brooks hasn’t been as dominant, sporting a 5.45 ERA. He’s struck out 72 and walked just 18.
Charles Harrison will lead the way out of the bullpen. He has a gaudy 1.14 ERA in 23.2 innings pitched in relief. He’s sent 36 batters packing. Finn McIlroy and Michael Bennett are also key pieces for Savage in relief.
If ASU gets the same starting pitching performance it did last weekend, expect the Sun Devils to win the series and maybe sweep it. That’s a big if, however, as Sun Devil starters haven’t enjoyed much success in the friendly confines of Phoenix Muni in 2023. Timmy Manning figures to be the starter on Thursday night, as he’s headlined the last two series. While both of his Friday starts were losses, he fared well, considering the ups and downs he’s endured for much of 2023. He was excellent at USC, throwing six innings of two-run ball and giving his team every chance to win. A week earlier, one poor inning bloated his final stat line against the Cardinal, but he again pitched well enough to give a potent ASU offense a chance to win it late.
Khristian Curtis has been ASU’s best starter from wire to wire, but that doesn’t mean it’s been perfect dominance. He struggled mightily at Oregon and against Stanford, citing command of his off-speed pitches as a reason for being too fastball reliant and giving up more barrels than he’s accustomed to. Whatever the issue was, he seemed to put it behind him in a dominant outing in the second game at USC. His seven shutout innings made up by far his best start in maroon and gold. He deserved the win, but a stunning lack of offense from the Sun Devils allowed two eighth-inning Trojan runs to be the difference.
Ross Dunn has been a curious case this year as well. He’s been relegated to the Sunday starter role after beginning the year as the Friday ace. Dunn has put himself into something of a Houdini role of late, with a precarious habit of pitching his way into trouble before somehow finding a way out of it. It’s not good for his pitch count, nor the heart rates of ASU fans and coaches, but he was masterful in the Sunday finale at USC. Each one of ASU’s three weekend starters turned in report cards worthy of a win in LA, but the bats inexplicably didn’t make the trip. Expect a move towards the mean on both sides this weekend.
It is officially white-knuckle time for Willie Bloomquist’s team. With both the Sun Devils and the Bruins struggling down the stretch, the final Pac-12 series may have something of a ‘Hunger Games’ theme, with UCLA fighting to keep not only its NCAA tournament hopes alive but also its Pac-12 tournament berth. ASU is desperately trying to avoid what would be, in no uncertain terms, a catastrophic collapse if it were to miss the field of 64 altogether. This team was in position to host a regional as a top 16 national seed less than a month ago. To miss the NCAA tournament after such a stellar first half of the season would make for a long and brutal off-season for Bloomquist and company.
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