(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Two weeks ago from Tuesday night, Arizona State baseball suffered one of the worst losses head coach Tracy Smith had ever seen. On the road against UNLV, ASU blew a five-run lead in the ninth and allowed the Rebels to come back and win the game 10-9. The Devils bullpen walked six hitters and got only one out in the inning.
“We didn’t forget that feeling after that game,” shortstop Alika Williams said. “We kind of took that with us as a chip on our shoulder.”
Smith echoed his shortstop’s words from that horrendous night for ASU baseball.
“There wasn’t a lot to say about [that game],” Smith said. “It was one of the craziest games I’ve ever seen and ever been apart of. It was an anomaly.”
With UNLV (23-19) coming into Phoenix Muni for a midweek matchup, the Devils (31-8) knew they wanted to grab revenge over the Rebels. Led by Williams’ three RBI night, Arizona State responded back on Tuesday night by taking down UNLV by a final score of 9-2.
Williams’ two hits and no-doubter home runs by starting pitcher Erik Tolman, Gage Workman and Spencer Torkelson powered the ASU offense to its fourth win in the past five games. Hunter Bishop also chipped in with a two-RBI triple off the wall in left-center.
“I thought we did a really good job of staying locked in and not getting comfortable even with the lead as we had in the middle innings,” Smith said. “We kept having good at-bats and ultimately we got some runs out it.”
Arizona State’s bullpen pulled it together this time around versus UNLV and performed exceptionally well for the midweek contest. Tolman threw 4.1 innings while only giving up three hits, two runs, a walk, and striking out five. His second inning home run was a bomb into the right-field bullpen, his third homer of the year.
“When I’m on the mound, I guess I’m more locked in,” the left-hander said. “I take it more serious. When I’m hitting, I just try to smile. I know hitting can be one of the most stressful things in a sport because it is so much failure.”
The rest of the bullpen consisting of Blake Burzell, Brady Corrigan, Chaz Montoya, and Sam Romero gave up only two hits combined on 5.2 scoreless innings to finish off the game. The key stat? Zero walks for all of these four pitchers combined.
“It’s all about the trust factor and trusting the guys in the locker room,” Smith said. “We trust those guys; the same guys that were part of the [UNLV comeback] and they came in tonight and did exceptionally well.”
ASU’s defense has been stellar for most of this season and it showed again tonight. Workman climbed the ladder to snag a line-drive at third base and fired the ball across the diamond to double off the runner at first. The infield made up of all sophomores also cleanly fielded many tough short-hops hit to them.
“Guys grow up and they mature,” Smith said. “Look at them. They are the same guys; the only difference is that they are playing more comfortably.”
With more tough opponents coming up for ASU, including this weekend on the road versus Washington and UCLA and Stanford still on the horizon, Smith sees the next couple of matchups as a good chance for the Devils to make some noise.
“I think it is a wonderful opportunity,” Smith said. “Our challenge is not to think that you have put a great deal of pressure on yourself or listen to the so-called experts. What you have to do is throw strikes, play defense, and grind out at-bats.”
Arizona State now must travel on the road for the second consecutive weekend as they play a 2018 College World Series team in the Washington Huskies. Friday’s first pitch is slated for 6:05 p.m from Seattle with Alec Marsh set to start on the mound for the Devils.
