(Photo: Joey Plishka/WCSN)
SCOTTSDALE – Prior to 2022, Joe Lampe was not exactly known for his offense.
The Arizona State Baseball sophomore center fielder and leadoff hitter was always the toolsy defensive stalwart who could steal bases like it was nobody’s business. The Northern California native showed up to practice before this season jacked and ready to prove he wasn’t just a one-sided player.
Throughout the regular season, Lampe displayed that his offseason work had paid off, all while doing things on the basepaths and in the outfield that felt superhuman.
On Friday night against rival Arizona in another elimination game in the inaugural Pac-12 Conference Tournament, Lampe had the unthinkable happen to him.
The Wildcats trailed 6-5 with the bases juiced in the bottom of the eighth inning. Arizona nine-hole hitter and sophomore center fielder Mac Bingham hit a fly ball to center field that felt like any other routine play for the ASU transfer, but Lampe took three steps forward before going backwards.
The violation of the outfield’s golden rule by Lampe cost ASU the game against the Wildcats, as the ball sailed over his head and three Wildcats came in to score. Arizona led 8-6, and closed out the game easily in the top of the ninth inning to move on and end the Sun Devils’ season.
“Joe’s accepting responsibility for it, but it’s not on him,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “He’s been a catalyst for us all year long and played his guts out and left everything on the field. I know he’s going to be hard on himself. A ball that’s hit like that, a low line drive, it’s a tough play. He feels he should make it, and given the situation it’s unfortunate, but no regrets.”
Lampe added: “I thought [the batter] reached for it a little bit. It was a ball I was going to have to jump for anyways, and if I didn’t get a perfect lead on it, I wasn’t going to catch it. That first step was a mistake. I just read it wrong off the bat.”
The sharp turnaround from being up one run to down two and batting in the top of the ninth didn’t stick with ASU, according to Lampe.
“I was focused on lining up the ball and getting on base and bringing the tying run to the plate,” Lampe, who led off the ninth inning, said.
It could not have been a faster start for ASU on Friday afternoon against the Wildcats. Lampe took a strike before hitting a single on the second pitch he faced to begin the top of the first inning. Sophomore shortstop Sean McLain followed him in similar fashion, hitting a fly to left field that was almost the product of an impressive catch by Arizona right fielder Tanner O’Tremba, but landed just in front of his glove, allowing McLain to take second base.
ASU freshman catcher Ryan Campos came to the plate next and chopped a ball that beat Arizona’s shift badly, which allowed the Sun Devils to score two runs on the softly hit ball and go up by a deuce before an out was recorded in the game.
But to Bloomquist’s point, the blame for Friday’s loss doesn’t just fall on Lampe.
ASU junior left-handed pitcher Adam Tulloch, who was the Sun Devils’ ace early in the year and earned Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week at one point before collapsing into a 8.03 ERA on the year, put together two impressive innings for ASU before running into serious trouble in the third inning.
He first allowed Bingham to single before hitting Arizona leadoff hitter and junior shortstop Nik McClaughry with the next pitch.
All of that came before the meat of the Wildcats’ order, which featured sophomore catcher Daniel Susac, a likely first-round 2022 MLB Draft pick, and O’Tremba. The two – who were batting .365 and .357 on the year respectively – made Tulloch pay for setting them up nicely.
Susac crushed the second pitch he saw into Scottsdale Stadium’s Charro Lodge, giving the Wildcats a sudden 3-2 lead over ASU. O’Tremba also took the first pitch from Tulloch, before sending the second one he saw into a similar spot as Susac, giving Arizona a two-run lead at 4-2 in the bottom half of the third inning.
“There were just a couple balls that didn’t bounce our way and there were a couple of physical mistakes,” Lampe said.
Shaken, Tulloch battled with Arizona sophomore left fielder Chase Davis before he hit a single to right field, putting another man on with just one out. The spell ended Tulloch’s day, and ASU brought in sophomore right-hander Christian Bodlovich to relieve him.
The Sun Devils’ featured fireman in 2022 didn’t fare overly well, as Bodlovich allowed a double to Arizona junior third baseman Tony Bullard and put men on second and third base. A sac-fly from Arizona freshman second baseman Garen Caulfield gave the Wildcats a 5-2 lead before the inning mercifully ended for the Sun Devils on a Bodlovich strikeout.
“We have to get better [next year], and it starts with pitching and defense,” Bloomquist said. “We have to get deeper on the mound.”
ASU showed fight by bringing in a run thanks to an error by McClaughry in the top of the fifth inning – he fumbled a grounder hit by McLain. Lampe, who was on base thanks to a double, used his speed to churn toward home, scoring easily and cutting Arizona’s lead to 5-3. The error put McLain in scoring position, giving ASU’s next batter in sophomore utility player Nate Baez a chance to put Arizona on the brink.
He did just that, chopping a single to center field to make it a 5-4 Arizona lead. The Wildcats appeared rattled after a pickoff attempt at first base allowed Baez to gain two bases and advance to third, but ASU fell short after senior first baseman Conor Davis grounded out to end the inning.
“We kept grinding and kept battling,” Bloomquist said. “…Good things can happen as long as you keep battling.”
The Sun Devils continued to fight in the top of the seventh inning, as Lampe doubled and McLain took a hit-by-pitch. That brought Campos to the plate, who put a grounder just past the glove of Caulfield to bring home both Sun Devils and regain the lead for ASU at 6-5, which was negated by the hit by Bingham and the play by Lampe.
“We battled all the way to the end,” Campos said. “We shouldn’t hold our head.”
Bloomquist has made it clear that his first year at the helm of the Sun Devils did not go as well as he or frankly anyone associated with the program thought. However, his players believe that despite the lack of wins, things at ASU moving forward have changed for the better.
“It’s night and day from a culture standpoint,” Lampe said. “There were bumps and bruises and scratching your head but that’s how you change a culture in my opinion.”
To help with Bloomquist’s goal of improving the pitching staff, Lampe said almost every ASU arm is playing summer ball this year to get better.
“Last year there were not many that went,” Lampe said.
Bloomquist credited his players for putting up with him on a daily basis, but also mentioned that he felt like ASU had bad breaks that put them behind the eight-ball a bit in 2022.
“I give the credit to the guys,” he said. “They have to go out and change the mindset and not give in. There were plenty of times this year where it felt like we got kicked in the stomach and had a lot of adversity but we kept battling and grinding. It’s a tribute to them.”
But the first-year head coach’s hard-nosed-ness still shined through.
“I expect that to continue,” he said.
Still, Bloomquist knows the program’s future is a two-way street.
“I have to get better as a coach,” he said. “Now that I’ve experienced it, I know what I have to do a better job at.”
