ASU Baseball: Vander Kooi shines but isn’t enough in 2-1 loss

(Photo: Jessica Carnivale/WCSN)

Boyd Vander Kooi’s start to his sophomore season in 2019 did not go how he wanted it to.

The right-hander took the mound in Arizona State baseball’s second game of the season against Notre Dame last February and struggled. He last 3.2 innings and gave up five earned runs.

The start – despite the game resulting in a 20-7 ASU pummeling of the Fighting Irish – was a foreshadow of the season to come for the starter. Vander Kooi finished the year with a 5.59 ERA in 96 innings, and allowed opposing batters to hit .301 against him.

So Saturday against Villanova in the Sun Devils first game of a double-header, Vander Kooi was hoping to change his fortunes.

The right-hander’s season got off to a much better start this year.

Vander Kooi lasted 7.2 innings against the Wildcats (1-1) in the No. 9 Sun Devils (1-1) 2-1 loss Saturday afternoon in the first game of a double-header. The second game will see No. 13 Michigan face No. 9 ASU in the Sun Devils first ranked matchup of the season.

Vander Kooi had five strikeouts, allowed one earned run and forced nine groundouts in the outing. He threw just 72 pitches in the seven innings.

He pitched a shutout until the sixth inning, where Villanova finally broke through after a scoreless game from both sides. Vander Kooi first walked junior center fielder Chris Rotondo after giving up a single to junior right-fielder Sam Margulis. Next up was junior second baseman Pat O’Neil, who bunted late on a pitch and sent it slowly down the first-base line. Senior catcher Nick Cheema hesitated making a play on the ball – perhaps waiting for it to roll foul – before picking it up and firing it low to junior Spencer Torkelson at first base. The error on Cheema loaded the bases for Villanova.

Pitching coach Jason Kelly then made a visit out to mound and subsequently got the bullpen warming. But help on the field was coming. Sophomore third baseman Nick Lorusso rocketed a ball to second base, where junior shortstop Drew Swift (Everyday junior shortstop Alika Williams did not start but pinch-hit) made a diving stop and flicked it to freshman second-baseman Nate Baez. The sequence only scored one run thanks to Swift’s diving stop.

ASU was out of the inning on the next pitch. Senior first-baseman Ryan Toohers grounded into a double play, which scored an extra run making it 2-0, but saved the Sun Devils of more damage.

In the bottom half of the sixth, Torkelson put up the first ASU runs of the game – a solo home run to left-center field that traveled 429 feet and came off his bat at 111 MPH, per ASU’s analytics department.

It was the highly-touted junior’s second home run in as many games this season. But the home run was ASU’s only offense of the day. They managed just one run and two hits off of the Villanova pitching staff, which saw sophomore right-hander Gordon Graceffo get the start. Graceffo went 5.1 innings while only striking out one ASU batter, but allowed just the home run to Torkelson as his only earned runs of the afternoon. The sophomore right-hander survived giving up hard contract to the Sun Devils, and managed off speed pitches that just weren’t hitting their spots well in the outing.

Freshman left-hander Danny Wilkinson relieved Graceffo and found the curveball Graceffo had been trying to throw. Dropping as low as 69 MPH, Wilkinson got four strikeouts in his 3.2 innings of work Saturday. He did find himself in some trouble though, as the Sun Devils loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth and worked him to a full count before junior outfielder Trevor Hauver struck out.

Arizona State will play Michigan at 6 PM Saturday before resuming their series with the Wildcats tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.