(Photo: Sammy Nute/WCSN)
PHOENIX – The pounding of a baseball hitting a catcher’s mitt and the ping of the bat were two sounds that could be heard around Phoenix Municipal Stadium, proving baseball was back on Saturday afternoon, at least in some form. A visual example was junior center fielder Isaiah Jackson smashing a home run to center field.
In the bottom of the seventh, Jackson came to the plate with one out and the game tied when he smacked a ball off the College World Series appearances sign to the right of the center field batter’s eye to put Arizona State baseball up 6-5. Jackson knew it was gone and put an exclamation mark on the blast with a bat flip before rounding the bases and celebrating with his teammates.
That run would end up being the difference maker in the game. Arizona State would bring another run across the plate and hold its opponent, Cal Baptist, scoreless for the remaining two frames for a final score of 7-5 in the team’s first fall ball game of the year.
The last time that Arizona State baseball played a game at Muni, prior to Saturday afternoon, it walked off UNLV thanks to a six-run ninth inning. The Sun Devils then went to the Pac-12 tournament where they were eliminated in two games, crushing their dreams of a conference title and ending their 2024 season.
Now, five months later, Arizona State can dream again.
The diamond Devils road to a shot at a conference title and making the College World Series in their first year as a Big 12 school won’t officially start until spring, however, the foundation was laid down Saturday afternoon with good defense, some solid pitching and strong offense that included two home runs. One of them was from a player making a big return.
Junior third baseman Nu’u Contrades was a force during his first season in the maroon and gold in 2023 where he slashed .309/.341/.484.
But before Saturday, Contrades last appeared in a game for Arizona State on February 25. He missed all but five games last year due to a back injury and it wasn’t known when exactly he would return to the lineup. That’s what made his ninth inning home run mean so much.
The game was already decided due to Arizona State leading 6-5 after the top of the ninth, but Cal Baptist went back out into the field and the Sun Devils would come up to the plate one last time to get more reps in the fall ball game.
That’s when Contrades came up to lead the inning off and hit his first home run since the second game of last season on February 17th. He made solid contact and drove the ball to deep left field. The ball was met with a leaping attempt from Lancers left fielder Bubba Rocha, but it was out of his reach, falling in front of the numbers in left field.
If Contrades is healthy and already putting good metal to ball the Sun Devils will be that much more dangerous in 2025.
Contrades also made some nice stops at third base but showed some rust. He made a sliding play and stepped on third base to get a force out but senior first baseman Jacob Tobias couldn’t handle his throw.
For the most part though, the Sun Devil defense had a good showing and hustled to try and make plays.
Senior shortstop Matt King, a transfer from UTSA, was one of the bright spots.
In the seventh, he made a great play on a ground ball that ricocheted off of the glove of a diving Nu’u Contrades, picking up the ball and throwing it across his body to get the out at first.
An inning earlier he made a play that potentially saved the game. With the bases loaded King dove for a ball hit up the middle and smacked second base with his glove for the force out. A run scored on the play to tie the game 5-5 but if the ball got past him more damage could’ve been done.
The middle of the infield has been a question mark for the Sun Devils but the way that King played might have provided manager Willie Bloomquist with an answer.
In addition to his defense, King was on base two times with a single and a double.
His double-play partner, redshirt junior second baseman Kyle Walker from Grambling State, lead off for the Sun Devils, and reached base twice. His single in the first inning ended up producing the first run of the game when redshirt sophomore left fielder Brandon Compton singled him home later in the inning.
Bloomquist trotted out seven pitchers in the first fall ball game. Junior right-hander Lucas Kelly, sophomore right-hander Rohan Lettow, sophomore right-hander Alec Belardes and senior right-hander Will Koger combined for 4.1 scoreless innings.
Three of the five runs that Cal Baptist scored occurred when sophomore right-hander Derek Schaefer was on the mound. He was the first reliever out of the pen and showed good stuff in his outing racking up four strikeouts in 1.2 innings pitched. However, he had gotten himself into some trouble. He allowed two singles to start off the fourth inning and while he got a ground ball it was the aforementioned error from Contrades. With two runners on Schafer gave up a three-run blast to senior catcher Matt Chavez that flew over the right-center field wall.
Kelly who came in after Schaefer was able to lock things down. He pitched out of a leadoff double he gave up to get three straight outs and set the ASU arms back on the right track.
Koger was the final pitcher of the game for the Sun Devils. He started off his outing with a strikeout, setting the tone. Even after he gave up a single he was still effective. He was able to induce a ground ball to short, where King started the 6-4-3 double play. Koger being effective in what was essentially the closer role Saturday night is a good first sign for Willie Bloomquist.
However, It was right-handed senior starter Jack Martinez, a transfer from Louisiana, who had arguably the most dominant outing. He gave up a run after a walk came around to score on a double in the second inning, but he also struck out three batters in his two innings of work. Two of those three started off his night. He got the leadoff batter, second baseman Ben Castelli to go down swinging before striking out center fielder Nick Dumesnil with a perfectly placed strike which caught the outside part of the plate.
Arizona State played one more game against Cal Baptist on Saturday. The winning continued and the offensive output was taken to the extreme.
A six-run first inning punctuated by freshman Gian De Castro’s bases-clearing three-run double in the fifth contributed to the offensive explosion that resulted in a 15-4 Sun Devils win.
Arizona State will continue its fall ball action when it welcomes USA Baseball into Muni on Nov. 1.
