(Photo: Joey Plishka/WCSN)
TEMPE – Arizona State Baseball’s long season-opening homestand is over, and through its first nine games, the Sun Devils are in an early hole. The last week in particular has seen them drop five straight, and the rubber match of a two-game set against No.4 Oklahoma State – an 11-6 loss to the Cowboys on Wednesday – is just salt in the wound.
“It sucks right now and we’re going through a tough time,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Nobody is happy about it but at the end of the day hopefully we’ll be battle tested and know that we can get through it. What other choices do we have?”
Oklahoma State dropped three runs in the first on redshirt senior right-hander Jacob Walker right out of the gate, thanks to a three-run homer from sophomore center fielder Caeden Trenkle. Walker threw 31 pitches before getting through the first inning.
The Sun Devils responded with perhaps their best offensive inning this season, with 11 men coming to the plate to help push across five runs. RBI hits from sophomore third baseman Ethan Long and redshirt sophomore catcher Nate Baez plated the first two runs while the ensuing three scored on an error, a bases loaded walk and HBP.
“We started taking our walks and were patient and we were able to pass the torch to the guy on deck,” Bloomquist said. “We were able to put a nice inning together but we were still looking for that big knockout blow. Guys are battling and playing hard. I have no problem with the effort.”
Between nine walks and two hit batters, the Sun Devils once again struggled to limit damage on the mound. Coming in, ASU blew leads in three of its previous four losses at the hands of the same trend. The miscues on the mound reared their ugly head once again, and by the sixth inning, the Sun Devils were playing from behind.
Oklahoma State chipped away, loading the bases at some point in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. In the sixth, Graduate left fielder Jake Thompson drilled an RBI single and Trenkle brought home the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly to left.
Then came the four-run seventh inning for the Cowboys, one that featured another Trenkle three-run blast as the proverbial knockout blow.
From there the Cowboys bullpen did the rest.
“The six losses in that column kind of summarizes it for the most part,” Bloomquist said. “We got to do a better job throwing strikes and attacking the strike zone. Our defense is playing pretty well for the most part, so we got to do a better job letting those guys work.”
Outside of the nightmare first inning from junior left-hander Dillon Marsh, Oklahoma State combined to allow just one additional run the rest of the way, with junior right-hander Bayden Root doing the heavy-lifting with 4.1 innings in relief.
Bloomquist feels the road trip can serve as a reset, but he understands that improvements must happen quickly. ASU starts Pac-12 conference play in a little over two weeks, and a cushion heading into that part of the season is of the utmost importance.
A 3-6 start still doesn’t bode well, but Bloomquist thinks it’s only a matter of time before the Sun Devils get on a roll.
“This is our first road trip, a chance to kind of come together as a team,” he said. “Sometimes that can help, a change of scenery might be a good thing. Hopefully that’s the case with us.”
With the status of redshirt sophomore second baseman Sean McLain and redshirt center fielder Joe Lampe up in the air heading on the road, early opportunities for freshmen like shortstop Cam Magee and second baseman Alex Champagne allow for growth in other areas outside of the win column. Despite those early losses – to go along with sophomore shortstop Hunter Haas’ partially torn rotator cuff that will sideline him for at least the next month – Magee and Champagne have found value in getting increased playing time.
“It’s good to get that exposure now,” Champagne said. “We’ve really been working all fall and into the spring so it has been good to get that under our belt.”
Champagne went 3-4 with two RBIs out of the leadoff spot while Magee showed off some prowess at shortstop to pair with it.
“We got to just fill in for [the infielders] and do our part for the team,” Magee said.
ASU will visit SDSU for a three-game set starting on Friday before moving up the coast for a midweek series against UC Irvine.
