(Photo: Reece Andrews/WCSN)
TEMPE – Friday night was perhaps Adam Tulloch’s night to re-assert himself for Arizona State Baseball.
Things haven’t been great for the redshirt junior left-handed pitcher in 2022, aside from a hot beginning to the year that earned him Pac-12 Conference Pitcher of the Week in mid-March.
Since then though, Tulloch has teetered between below-average to simply bad on the mound for the Sun Devils.
Especially rough starts have plagued two of his last three outings – Tulloch gave up six runs in five innings to UCLA on April 29, which resulted in a 19-2 loss. While ASU got a win over Utah 19-7 a week later, Tulloch did give up six of the Utes’ runs in 4.1 innings of work. But there was a bright spot – 10 strikeouts accompanied Tulloch’s work that night.
That figured to have potentially transferred over on Friday night against Oregon, where the Sun Devils were looking for their fifth-straight win. Though it was bisected by a 1.2 inning opener start on Tuesday night at Grand Canyon, Tulloch saw another outing get off the tracks fast in ASU’s 11-3 loss to the Ducks.
“At some point, you have to overcome stuff and pick each other up a bit and still compete,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “…We were expecting four or five innings [from Tulloch], hopefully.”
It started right at first pitch, as Ducks junior left fielder Tanner Smith ripped a single through the ASU six hole. Tulloch then proceeded to not get much help from his defense, as freshman first baseman Jacob Tobias lost a slow roller that went right to his toes.
Two batters later, with one out, a catchable ball got down in left field via the bat of Oregon junior designated hitter Drew Cowley. Tulloch responded by giving up a rope to sophomore shortstop Josh Kasevich, who gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead. Another defensive lapse saw Oregon sophomore center fielder Colby Shade advance to second base, which proved critical when he came around third base via sophomore right fielder Anthony Hall’s chopper.
“We can’t be kicking the ball around,” Bloomquist said. “[Those were] Little League errors. It’s embarrassing. We’re at the stage of the season where that can’t happen. We’re better than that. They know it. I know it.
“You’ve got to be able to turn the page and lock in offensively.”
ASU added a run in the bottom frame of the first via a hit by pitch, passed ball and base hit by freshman catcher Ryan Campos, but Oregon ran back its performance in the second inning.
Tulloch walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, and freshman left fielder Will Rogers almost made a ridiculous diving catch that turned instead into a Smith double. Tulloch then walked another Duck before ASU sophomore second baseman Nate Baez lacked support for the ASU lefty, allowing a grounder to go to the left of him up the middle. The hit scored one and ended Tulloch’s night.
“I’m not going to put it all on the pitching because we didn’t make plays for them,” Bloomquist said.
ASU senior right-handed pitcher Jacob Walker relieved Tulloch and promptly didn’t improve things. Kasevich crushed a ball to deep center field, scoring two and putting Oregon up 6-1 in the second inning.
“The tempo kind of got set early,” Bloomquist said. “We kicked the ball around there in the first inning and it just kind of – we didn’t respond the way that we have all year. That was disappointing. It just seemed like guys were flat tonight for whatever reason and that was unacceptable. We’re better than that. We’re more intense than what we showed tonight.”
The Sun Devils showed little fight throughout the course of the game. They had a bases loaded opportunity in the third inning thanks to two walks and a single, but a strikeout by senior designated hitter Conor Davis killed the rally.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, ASU got two men on via a Davis single and a Tobias walk. It only led to one run on an error, but was perhaps the most encouraging sign the Sun Devils showed after the Oregon lead ballooned.
“If you’re going to roll over breaking balls on the first pitch, at least eight or nine times that I can remember [during the game], then you’re not going to be very good,” Bloomquist said. “It’s not acceptable. We didn’t become a pretty dang good offensive team by doing that. So what makes you think that that approach tonight would be any different than it has been?”
ASU’s run in the sixth inning came after sophomore left-hander Danny Marshall eventually relieved Walker after he gave up a solo home run to Hall in the top frame of the inning.
The Sun Devils had a four-game winning streak coming into the Oregon series. While that concludes, it was ASU’s second-longest of the year. A win would have tied its season-high.
Still, this weekend’s Oregon series gives ASU a chance to leap the Ducks in the Pac-12 Standings, and make an appearance in the inaugural Pac-12 Tournament more likely. Now, Bloomquist finds himself at a loss for words ahead of two more games against Oregon, with other Pac-12 teams like Washington and Cal breathing down the Sun Devils’ neck.
“The magnitude of the series, I thought we’d come out better than we did,” Bloomquist said. “I’d figure we’d come out a bit more with our hair on fire and we didn’t.”
