The last Sun Devil to take the field, Alec Marsh heard his name rattle around the PA system and bolted up the steps of ASU’s dugout, on a straight shot for the mound. His long 6-foot-2 frame only took a few strides before he touched the center dirt.

Along the way, his cleats slapped down on the first-base-line chalk -- a notorious bad omen for the mildly superstitious baseball player. Marsh, though, doesn’t need superstition.

“When it’s game day, if I ever get nervous or if anything is going through my head, I just say, ‘You’ve prepared for this the best you could, so you’re prepared to do what you’re supposed to do,’” Marsh said. “My preparation has been more consistent than it’s ever been.”

Now a year away from jumping out of the bullpen, the Sun Devils’ Friday starter has developed a routine. More time devoted to scouting reports. More film to look at. More days to go all out in practice.

The junior righty was in a state of limbo his first two seasons in Tempe. Heck, the entire Arizona State baseball program was in a state of limbo. With it, though, came innings, and experience, for the Milwaukee native.

Whether as a reliever or starter, two years of collegiate pitching gave him an understanding of what it takes to succeed in an elevated role, what a day-to-day routine should look for every pitcher on ASU’s staff.

“The rough patches freshman, sophomore year, kind of not knowing what to do, and then getting used to it and coming back this year and it was like, ‘Alright, I know what I have to do,’” Marsh said. “It was a lot easier.”

That part has shown.

In seven starts this season, Marsh boasts a 0.94 ERA with just five total earned runs, 36 hits, 42 strikeouts, and 17 walks.

In No. 9 ASU’s 8-2 win over Arizona (13-12) on Friday night, Marsh carried a no-hitter into the fifth, surrendering a pair of solo shots before he exited the game in the seventh. The series-opening victory ties ASU with N.C. State for the best record in the country at 23-1; Marsh improved to 7-0.

“For him to go in and set the tone like that week in and week out to this point has been huge,” ASU head coach Tracy Smith said. “He’s pitching with a lot more confidence. He knows he can execute his other pitches.”

A year after recording a 3.89 ERA with 31 walks, Marsh has turned into the elusive Friday-night ace, a piece the Sun Devils have been missing for two years. As expected, he puts a lot of stock in his preparation changes.

But after fully developing a slider in the offseason, Marsh rolled out a five-pitch arsenal in 2019 that’s allowed him to go deeper in games. Sticking to a game plan with catcher Sam Ferri, he likes to go through the order once using only a fastball and one off-speed pitch, flashing more secondary stuff as the game progresses.

“You throw your secondary stuff when a hitter tells you he’s ready for it,” ASU pitching coach Mike Cather said. “We’ve had a lot of discussions about it where he’ll come in and say, ‘Man, my changeup is good,’ and I’ll say, ‘I’m not going to throw one of these guys a changeup.’

“A lot of times with Alec, he pitches so well with his fastball that he’s probably going to be a high-percentage fastball guy. But we’ve done it in the past where he’s thrown 75 percent off speed in one inning.”

Before the season, Cather made a chart for each of his pitchers designating the ideal percentages they should be throwing each of their pitches. Less than two months into the season, that chart is in the trash. Instead, ASU’s pitchers, usually back by an early lead from their offense, have thrown 75 percent fastballs.

Marsh’s fastball numbers have largely fallen in line with that. Friday was different. Of Marsh’s 103 pitches against Arizona, just 58 of them were either a two-or-four-seam fastball. That means 45, or 44 percent, of his pitches were off speed.

Like most things marsh does on the mound, it was all part of a game plan.

“With how many lefties they had, our game plan going in, talking with Cat, was just like, ‘Alright, we’re going to start mixing pitches first pitch. We’re going to start using your changeup a lot more tonight,’” Marsh said Catcher told him. “Instead of having one pitch be on that day, I’m trying to have them all be on every single day.”

Unlike most collegiate juniors, Marsh takes a big-league approach to his craft. He takes into account mixing pitches, wanting to save some weapons for his second and third time around the order.

Obviously, he wasn’t able to execute that on Friday. At first, it didn’t matter. But when the latter innings came around, Arizona’s hitters knew what he had.

In his first two at-bats, Wildcat left fielder Austin Wells was standing way off the plate, striking out and walking, respectively. But on his third trip up, Wells crowded the plate, looking for a fastball inside.

Regretfully, Marsh obliged. He threw inside, hurling a 91 mph fastball that Wells crushed over the right-field wall for Arizona’s first run of the game.

“It was kind of just on us,” Marsh said. “At that point, I don’t know how much we were up by, but solo home runs aren’t going to beat you so it was kind of just attack the next guy.”

He’ll probably look at it more this week, preparing for the time that situation again arises.