(Photo: Xavier Littman)
PHOENIX — As players and coaches spoke with the media in the offseason, Arizona State baseball praised the team’s bolstered starting rotation, lauding the team’s newfound depth. Even with redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher Tyler Meyer going down for the year with shoulder surgery, the Sun Devils thought they were well-equipped entering Opening Day.
“I think we have a lot of options or a lot more options this year,” Bloomquist said on Jan. 27. “We’re confident about it, certainly with the guys we brought in, we feel that you know, in the event that we had something extremely negative like Tyler going down, that we still are able to weather the storm a little bit. We’re excited about (junior lefty) Ross (Dunn), (junior righty) Khristian (Curtis), and (junior southpaw) Timmy Manning.”
Through the first five games of the season, those three starters, plus junior righty Josh Hansell were out to prove the praise that they were receiving was legit. In those five games, the starters threw 22.1 innings without surrendering a single run. Not only did they succeed in surrendering zero runs, but the starters also struck out 23 batters, only giving up nine hits and eight walks.
They were pitching up to their full potential, and the only thing stopping them was the innings limit placed on them by the coaching staff. It appeared that as soon the Sun Devil rotation was stretched out, they could turn some heads in the Pac-12 this season.
However, it would not stay that way for long. As in the third inning of the second game against Mississippi State, the scoreless streak came to a close as Curtis surrendered the first run by a starter. From that third inning, the starters have fallen short of the praise, throwing 14.1 innings and surrendering an abysmal 29 runs. After starting the season 5-0, the Sun Devils have now fallen to 6-5, including a three-game sweep at home to UC Irvine.
The differences between the two teams’ starting pitchers were apparent and were a big key in the Anteaters’ success over ASU. In the three games this weekend, UC Irvine starters threw 11.1 innings, surrendering six runs, all in the first game, while striking out 14. Meanwhile, the ASU starters surrendered 14 runs and were only able to throw 5.2 innings on the whole weekend.
“They’ve tried to overpower people instead of pitching,” pitching coach Sam Peraza said about his starters. “You saw what (UC Irvine) did. You compare arm to arm; I mean, it’s not a comparison, no disrespect to them. But, they’ve done a good job with changing speeds, locating, and not beating themselves.”
Unlike the Anteaters, the Sun Devils were especially prone to beating themselves as free bases have become a common problem for the ASU staff. Against UC Irvine, ASU pitchers surrendered 29 free bases, including 13 in the team’s 10-9 loss on Saturday.
With ASU looking to avoid being swept on Sunday, Manning took the hill, attempting to get his team back on track. Instead, the junior recorded only a single out, giving up four runs. Free bases were once again the story as, in only seven batters faced, Manning walked two and hit another.
“I think they’re a little concerned about that radar gun and what it reads behind them,” Peraza said, trying to explain the recent starting pitching struggles. “If I could take (the radar gun) away from them, I think they would be better off. It shows it on every PAC 12 place we go to, so you got to learn to deal with it.”
The last time the Sun Devils were swept in a three-game series at home was last year in late February when BYU came to town and took all three games. Following that sweep, the Sun Devils then played host to Oklahoma State. This year, following a sweep to a non-power-five school, ASU will once again suit up against the Cowboys, this time in the hostile environment that is Stillwater.
Head coach Willie Bloomquist and his staff said that they had a lot more options coming into this year. With the current weekend starters struggling, the midweek series against No. 12 Oklahoma State will offer an opportunity for Bloomquist and Peraza to get a look at some new guys.
“We’re going to give some guys a different chance this Tuesday and Wednesday against Oklahoma State,” Peraza said. “If they perform, we could change it up. I think [the weekend] guys need to understand that they got to pitch for that job. They got really good stuff, but the one thing that I think will be different between this year and last year, and I know we’re going through a little tough spell, is we have options. Where last year, we had to keep running and those guys out there because we didn’t have options.”
