(Photo: Jake Seymour/WCSN)
The field is trimmed, the mound and plate are prepped, the warning track has been swept, and emergency buckets of double bubble gum are on standby. It’s time for opening day. Nearly a nine-month wait, filled with a drastic roster retooling, has brought Arizona State baseball to this moment.
“I’m more anxious this year to get started than I was last year,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Last year, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I haven’t felt the emotions of a coach before. Obviously, I knew what to expect as a player, but last year was the first year I experienced opening day as a non-player.”
ASU only has ten returners from last season, but it enters the year with Baseball America’s second-best transfer classes in the nation. The complete makeover will aid in the effort to blow away the dreary clouds cast over the program by a disappointing 2022. Bloomquist and his coaching staff have worked tirelessly over the offseason to solve the flaws integrated with last season’s roster.
“I feel like we have a more veteran presence with some of the older guys we brought in,” Bloomquist said. “We’ve tried to prepare in practice what things we anticipate facing and whether we show up and execute when the lights come on. We’ll find out.”
Friday is the day to see if the 2023 Sun Devils fare any better than their predecessor, opening up with San Diego State at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The Aztecs – who suffered a program-worst 18-38 2022 season – had a stretch where it lost 11 of 12 games, picking up their lone win against ASU.
“We played against them last year. They got some talented kids over there,” junior infielder Ethan Long said. “I expect them to come in and give us their best. Hopefully, we walk out with the sweep.”
The Sun Devils won the three-game series against the Aztecs, but Long and company are hoping to open the 2023 season with a sweep against SDSU. Despite the poor record, the Aztecs had 14 losses by two runs or less, possibly indicating that the program is better than its record reflects.
Returners bolster Aztecs’ pitching staff
Head coach Mark Martinez has hope for the 2023 season, saying “if failure breeds success, then we should be pretty good.” Martinez touched on the program’s faults but shined a light on the Aztecs having the best pitching staff in the Mountain West. They led the conference with a 4.97 ERA, 504 strikeouts, and a .256 opponent batting average.
SDSU maintained most of its pitching staff, and now with innings under the belts for the young arms, it could forecast another stellar year from the pen. Starting junior left-hander TJ Fondtain is the headliner for the returners for the Aztecs. His 2022 campaign consisted of 13 starts and an ERA of 4.58 with 60 strikeouts.
“I’ve seen video of the guy we’re facing Friday. So, it’s just getting ready to face him and attack him,” Long said. “They’re going to give us pitches we can hit and see if we can hit it, and we’re going to.”
Fondtain has shown his endurance with two complete games near the end of last season. With this being the opening series and a strong bullpen behind him, it’s hard to believe that Martinez would let his junior left-hander go for 100+ pitches, but it wouldn’t be outside Fondtain’s capabilities.
“Their Friday night guy, Fondtain, is a guy we faced last year. So, we’ve seen him before, but the bottom line is that they’re an experienced staff,” Bloomquist said. “We’re going to stick to our game plan against them.”
The Aztecs had seven pitchers below a 5.00 ERA, while the Sun Devils only had two. SDSU has depth on the mound, highlighted by junior right-hander Kelana Sauer. The 6-foot-3 Hawaiian reliever was a starter this time last year but was moved to the pen and thrived in the role with five saves and fanning 45 batters in 2022.
Redshirt sophomore right-hander Jadon Bercovich and redshirt junior right-hander Johnny Guzman are another pair of arms sliced through batters easily. The right-handers both had an opponent batting average of .195, while Bercovich had a .98 WHIP, the best on the team.
Other Aztecs’ arms that deserve recognition are sophomore left-hander Chris Canada and sophomore right-hander Eldridge Armstrong III. The two, during their freshman year, tore up the mound. Armstrong, in relief, shined when the pressure was high, allowing a .170 (9-53) batting average with runners on. While the 6-foot-7 Canada had eight appearances with multiple strikeouts, illustrating his power on the bump.
“They have some experienced guys on the mound,” Bloomquist said. “Guys that know how to pitch sometimes give us trouble.”
ASU struggled with its situational hitting, having an egregious amount of instances where it failed to put base runners on late in the game. SDSU didn’t manage much better with pitching in the clutch, as the club had 25 games that allowed two or more runs in the game’s final three innings.
SDSU hitting leaves more to be desired
From first in every major pitching category to last in every hitting category, the offense is a massive juxtaposition to the mound. They ranked at the bottom in the Mountain West with 4.8 runs per game, 29 home runs, 246 RBIs, 492 hits, a .260 batting average, a .364 slugging percentage, and a .354 on-base percentage.
SDSU ranked last in all of those categories by a wide margin. Martinez blamed the roster’s youth and them beating themselves on most occasions but hit for contact, and while there were the occasional hitting clinics, those performances were inconsistent for the program.
The batting lineup is top-heavy, with the marquee name being junior outfielder Cole Carrigg. The First-Team All-Mountain West Selection Carrigg was SDSU’s saving grace at the plate. The Cape Cod Baseball league All-Star ended the year on a 16-game hitting streak, a stretch where he had 30 hits and 15 RBIs.
The Turlock, California native batted .388 and led the program with 83 hits, 40 RBIs, a .935 OPS percentage, and 19 stolen bases. Carrigg is a bonafide star for the Aztecs, and the Sun Devils were an eye-witness to it during their March 4 meeting, where the junior outfielder had a three-hit outing.
Outside of the prowess of Carrigg, batters’ consistency at the plate is thin on this SDSU roster. The clear second-best hitter statically is junior catcher Poncho Ruiz. The Tijuana, Mexico Product was behind Carrigg in almost every significant batting statistic besides home runs, where Ruiz was tied for first with five. Ruiz displayed discipline at the plate, leading the club with 30 walks.
“They got some guys capable of swinging the bat,” Bloomquist said. “Cole Carrigg is a nice player. Poncho behind the dish is a nice player. Those guys have some pop.”
Sophomore outfielder Irvin Weems sits with Ruiz with five home runs, and after a sluggish start in 2022, he ended it strong with 12 hits in his last five games. Weems earned Mountain West Freshman of the Year by batting .293, an OBS of .391, and recording 17 stolen bases. Carrigg and Weems led the Aztecs to the most stolen bases in their conference with 82, an essential piece to SDSU’s west-coast offense.
“A little bit of speed at the top and the bottom,” Bloomquist said. “We’re going to have to execute our pitches and not beat ourselves. That’s the key. If we can attack the strike zone, I think we should be in good shape.”
The remaining batting lineup contains some decent bats in speedster junior infielder Caden Miller and redshirt sophomore outfielder Shaun Montonya, who both swing at a .284 average. However, the Aztecs are limited, with most of the names on the depth chart hitting below the national average.
SDSU has had to rely on Fondtain to produce at the mound and at the plate. On his off days, the left-hander plays at first base and has impressive production. In 62 at-bats, Fondtain racked in 21 hits with eight doubles and a .597 slugging percentage. His two-way ability has been crucial to helping the Aztecs stay afloat last season.
It’s no secret that ASU’s bullpen struggled last year, but Bloomquist spent a hefty amount of time and resources to retool the staff. Now, against SDSU, it’ll be a suitable test to see how the new arms respond to their new environment and see if the coaching staff’s efforts lead to results.
“I’ve given [the club] the analogy, ‘You got a blank scripted, it’s your job to write it.’” Bloomquist said. “Play with your hair on fire, play with intensity and body language, effort, all that stuff is just standard here.”
