(Photo: Joey Plishka/WCSN)
TEMPE – The struggles of Arizona State Baseball’s bullpen in 2022 are more than a known commodity.
Because of that, it had been on junior starting pitchers Adam Tulloch and Kyle Luckham – with sophomore righty Tyler Meyer helping out too – to carry the Sun Devils onward and give them a chance in games throughout the year.
Tulloch, through ASU’s first 18 games of the season, was the Sun Devils’ undisputed ace. He sported a 2.88 ERA and won the Pac-12 Conference’s Pitcher of the Week award following a 13-strikeout performance against San Francisco just over a week ago. Tulloch had been dominant, and a bright spot during ASU’s tough start to the year.
On Sunday against Washington, in ASU’s 6-4, 11-inning loss to the Huskies while trying to clinch a sweep, Tulloch looked more like the pitcher he’s been over his last two outings – one who allowed seven runs in 1.2 innings of work against then-No. 5-ranked Oregon State on March 18 en route to a 21-0 ASU loss and then allowed three earned runs in one inning of work on short rest against Grand Canyon on Tuesday.
“I think Tully [just] needs to trust his stuff,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “His stuff is there. He started three games in 10-11 days. We haven’t stretched him out, but nonetheless, it’s taxing. …We need the Adam Tulloch we saw early, where he was in attack mode and not thinking about external stuff.”
ASU pitching coach Sam Peraza added: “[Tulloch] needs to learn how to be aggressive when he doesn’t have his best fastball. That’s something he needs to learn and grow with going forward in professional baseball. When he has his best fastball in the mid-90s, he attacks, and when he doesn’t, he gets nipped a little bit and puts himself in bad counts.”
Tulloch’s bad outing didn’t matter as much as it seemed it would at first – ASU rallied from a 4-1 hole and tied the game in the bottom of the ninth inning thanks to an RBI double from freshman catcher Ryan Campos. But Tulloch’s performance looms large in a game with so few runs scored from ASU and that saw the Sun Devils come so close to winning.
“That starter for [Washington] today had the best stuff in terms of their starting pitching,” ASU hitting coach Travis Buck said. “He had a really good fastball and started to locate his slider.”
Washington sophomore first baseman Will Simpson’s solo home run in the top of the 11th inning was the difference in Sunday’s contest. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Brock Peery gave ASU a solid outing in the 10th inning, but saw that fade away quickly in the 11th as Simpson’s long ball to left field exited the park.
“We’ve put Peery in those situations a fair amount here in the past couple weeks and he’s done his job very well,” Bloomquist said. “We were getting a little thin there, and we extended him a little too [much].”
Peraza added: “[Simpson] caught a 3-2 slider and took it for an Arizona [wind-enhanced] home run.”
Peery then saw Washington add another base-runner, which freshman shortstop Cam Clayton brought home to extend the Washington lead to 6-4.
[The second run] was my fault,” Peraza said. “I had a base open and a 2-0 count and we tried to jump it, so we should have gone slider.”
Bloomquist added: “We’re still not where we need to be, but we did make progress. We cut down on strikeouts [offensively]. Today wasn’t stellar by any means but guys are developing and understanding what we demand as a coaching staff moving forward. It was a step in the right direction but we have room to get better.”
ASU began to close the gap it faced with a solo home run from sophomore center fielder Joe Lampe in the bottom of the sixth inning. In the bottom of the eighth inning, sophomore shortstop Sean McLain’s RBI groundout gave the Sun Devils just a one-run deficit to work with.
Tulloch showed trepid signs early in Sunday’s outing. He walked Washington’s leadoff batter in six pitches and threw a ball to Washington sophomore catcher Johnny Tincher before allowing him to single. ASU sophomore catcher Nate Baez sensed the moment and paid Tulloch a visit, which seemingly calmed him down, as Tulloch got out of the jam thanks to a fly out and inning-ending double play.
“I thought that once he got through the first inning, he’d settle down a little bit,” Peraza said of Tulloch. “I thought he did a little better afterwards.”
Tulloch got through the next two innings clean, but teetered on a 50-50 strike-to-ball ratio and received crucial plays from his defense, including a diving catch by Lampe in the third inning. When the fourth inning rolled around, Tulloch buckled.
“I wish we could turn off the scoreboard so he doesn’t know what his fastball is like [velocity wise],” Peraza said.
A solo home run by Washington freshman left fielder AJ Guerrero got the scoring started, putting the Huskies up 1-0. Sophomore third baseman Michael Synder then singled, while a groundout preceded a precious just-left-of-the-foul-line fall by a ball smoked by Washington sophomore right fielder Cole Miller.
Tulloch was then visited a second time by the Sun Devils’ dugout, but balked before he threw his first pitch back to Baez, making it 2-0 Washington. Washington second baseman Josh Urps then singled, bringing Miller home and the Huskies’ lead to 3-0.
“I thought we came out pretty flat today in the first half of the game,” Bloomquist said of the offense not matching the Huskies’ scoring. “Good teams limit the amount of times they come out flat. You could sense it early on – that we didn’t come out with the intensity we needed to early. Later, we showed signs of life [though].”
Tulloch was replaced by ASU sophomore right handed pitcher Jared Glenn, who quickly allowed a single to Washington junior center fielder McKay Barney but got Tincher to ground out to third base to end the inning.
The Sun Devils responded fast, with sophomore third baseman Ethan Long hitting his fourth home run of the season over the center field wall to cut Washington’s lead to 3-1.
“It’s good to see Ethan hit the ball hard and use all parts of the field,” Buck said. “It’s huge.
“It’s not trying to hit home runs, it’s trying to hit the ball hard with backspin in the gaps.”
Glenn continued on the mound in the fifth inning, where he encountered trouble immediately. Washington sophomore first baseman Will Simpson doubled before an out was recorded, and Long lost an infield pop-up that went sky high, putting two on base for the Huskies.
After getting Guerrero to groundout, Glenn hit Synder, which loaded the bases for freshman shortstop Cam Clayton. Clayton singled to left field, giving Washington a 4-1 lead and ending Glenn’s day after just 0.2 innings pitched.
Junior right-handed pitcher Chase Webster came in to relieve Glenn, and did so promptly, forcing a double play on the first pitch he threw. Webster didn’t allow a run during his two inning outing.
“It’s better for us to use [Webster] for one-to-two innings once a weekend,” Peraza said.
While Luckham has pitched well in 2022, the struggles of Tulloch are an unwelcome sight to the Sun Devils’ 2022 season. The series against Washington’s first two games saw ASU build some momentum with back-to-back wins on Friday and Saturday, and a win on Sunday would’ve given ASU’s its second sweep of the year. But now the Sun Devils have a sour taste in their mouth heading into a quick turnaround game at UNLV on Tuesday, followed by a weekend series with Pac-12 foe Cal.
“Every game in the Pac-12 is important,” Buck said. “We were able to steal one away last weekend against Oregon State and to kind of come out flat [on Sunday] – we don’t want these guys to be satisfied winning the first two. Especially having that momentum from the first two and wanting to get that sweep.
“[The message] was not to be satisfied. 2-2 on the week is not very good in our opinion. We have very high expectations with our guys. We don’t want them to be satisfied.”
