(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Despite their torrid start to the 2019 season, charging through their opposition with an offensive onslaught and pitching prowess that left the stat sheet looking like a video game at times, the Arizona State baseball team is realizing just how much it will take to return to the status of college baseball’s elite.
In the second game of their three-game series against the No. 1 UCLA Bruins (37-7, 16-4 Pac-12), coming off a tightly-contested 3-2 loss in the series opener, the No. 22 Sun Devils (32-12, 13-10 Pac-12) looked overmatched and were outplayed in all facets of the game in an 18-3 loss at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
Garrett Mitchell, Chase Strumpf and Michael Toglia each tallied a home run and four RBI for UCLA, with Strumpf connecting for a grand slam in the fourth inning.
The Bruins recorded 22 hits on the afternoon, 13 of them for extra bases.
“You’re probably a little bit more frustrated with [Friday’s] loss because you’re like, ‘You know we had some chances, you’re a swing of the bat away,'” Sun Devil head coach Tracy Smith said. “Unfortunately today it didn’t happen. But you cannot let that impact your mindset moving forward. That game is over… you gotta clear your heads, and go compete tomorrow. Period. That’s all you can do.”
Perhaps the most confounding aspect of Arizona State’s season continued on Saturday, as sophomore Boyd Vander Kooi turned in another poor outing for Smith, lasting only 4.1 innings while surrendering eight runs on nine hits, including three of UCLA’s seven home runs on the day.
Vander Kooi, viewed by the coaching staff prior to the season as having the potential to be tabbed as the Friday night starter over junior incumbent Alec Marsh, has allowed at least four runs in seven of his last eight starts, and now sees his ERA sit at a less-than-favorable 6.15.
“[He] took the mound, I think, a little tenative for starters,” Smith said. “But then even when he settled in and got ahead, just the inability to put guys away. Early on I think he was pitching behind, and you pitch behind against a good-hitting team… there’s a good chance they’re going to move the baseball with authority.”
While the starting pitching did not live up to expectations on Saturday for Arizona State, it certainly did for UCLA head coach John Savage, as redshirt junior Jack Ralston hurled seven shutout innings with just one walk and seven strikeouts.
“Our guys were having a real tough time seeing [Ralston’s] changeup,” Smith said. “You know, it’s an unorthodox arm action, and he’ll throw off that same arm action.”
“Trevor Hauver’s a really good hitter, and I think we saw Trevor, that’s probably as poor as I’ve seen him at the plate the entire year. He just wasn’t seeing it, and it happens sometimes.”
The series loss could potentially drop Arizona State out of the d1baseball.com rankings for the first time since the third week of the season.
The Sun Devils still find themselves in a top-four position in the Pac-12, with the final game of the series against the Bruins on Sunday looming to try and right their ship.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Arizona State following Sunday’s tilt with the Bruins, starting with a non-conference matchup against rival Arizona in Tucson on Tuesday, followed by series at Nebraska and California, with a home series against current conference leader Stanford ending the regular season.
Despite all of the ups and downs that the Sun Devils have been enduring for the past several weeks, the unflappable confidence that has been surrounding the team since the first game of the season back in mid-February doesn’t seem to have wavered at all, starting with the man at the top.
“We feel like garbage right now, but we’re still 20 games above .500,” Smith said. “Not bad. It’s not where we want to be, but it’s not horrible either. So we’re still in a position to handle things via what we do, and not relying on somebody else.”
