(Photo: Paige Cook/WCSN)
TEMPE – Over its last three games coming into Friday, Arizona State Baseball has scored a lot.
45 times to be exact, and against a pair of Pac-12 adversaries in Stanford and USC. Three straight double-digit run scoring affairs gave way to game two of its weekend series against the Trojans where the Sun Devils effort on the mound shined above all else.
With redshirt junior right-handed starter Kyle Luckham on the hill for the ninth time this season, ASU notched a third straight win behind seven strong innings of work from the righty in an 8-2 victory.
“Whether I have my best stuff or my worst, they know they’ll get ‘44’s best every time,” Luckham said. “I always try to find a way to win in any way.”
It’s the fourth time this season that Luckham has gone seven innings, and after an outing to forget against Stanford where he was ejected after 1.2 innings – after having already given up five runs – he was pretty satisfied when the dust settled on Friday.
“It definitely helps out the [bullpen],” Luckham said. “We used a lot of guys yesterday and it sets us up for a win tomorrow I think. It’s always good to help those guys out, they work super hard.”
Luckham’s efficiency was the catalyst, he threw five pitches in the sixth inning after just an eight-pitch top of the fourth. His 100th pitch of the night was his last, a nasty curveball in the dirt to strikeout redshirt sophomore right fielder Adrian Colon-Rosado, stranding the bases loaded in the process.
Luckham’s final line featured no walks and seven punchouts as he surrendered two runs on nine hits.
“The main thing was that Kyle did give us some length,” Head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “He did his job, got a lot of quick innings and got us off the field and back to work offensively. That helps when you have a guy who’s keeping you on your toes defensively and pitching with tempo.”
Arizona State grabbed its first run in the second inning following a leadoff double from graduate first baseman Conor Davis which gave way to freshman catcher Ryan Campos’ RBI double – that he attempted to stretch into a triple before being called out a third – to give the Sun Devils an early lead.
After a two-run fourth led by three consecutive singles from Davis, Campos and eventually freshman designated hitter Jacob Tobias, ASU began to find a familiar groove at the plate in the ensuing innings. While it failed to produce a run in the fifth, ASU put enough pressure on USC sophomore right-handed starter Tyler Stromsborg to chase him from the game, attempting three hit-and-runs, two of which during sophomore third baseman Ethan Long’s third at-bat of the night.
The early aggressive plate appearances were validated when Stromsborg’s exit came without a single strikeout to that point in the ballgame.
“We’re kind of going at them at all angles,” Long said. “It puts them on their heels and that’s what we have to do. Everybody is doing their job and when you have Joe and Sean in front of you it’s nice because they can outrun pretty much everyone out there.”
Naturally, with two men in scoring position and two outs, redshirt junior right-hander Toby Spach struck out Davis swinging to end the inning.
The Sun Devils poured it on in the seventh and eighth innings, first with Long’s sixth blast of the season, a two-run shot to left-center field, before redshirt sophomore right fielder Kai Murphy clobbered a two-run blast of his own in the eighth. Every starter successfully reached base once freshman second baseman Cam Magee walked in the eighth, meanwhile four ASU batters, redshirt sophomore shortstop Sean McLain, Davis, Campos and Murphy, put together multi-hit performances.
“It goes to show the grind we’re going through and the will to not quit,” Davis said. “We realize that other guys are going to pick each other up. We knew this was coming and the big thing is we need to continue to keep our foot on the gas.”
The Trojans lone offensive output came from one man, redshirt sophomore second baseman Tyresse Turner, who answered the first Sun Devil run by launching a solo home run off the top of the Whiteman Family Performance Center beyond the right field bullpen in the third. Turner finished 3-for-4, driving in the final USC run on a single in the fifth inning.
Over the last week, The Sun Devils have been paid visits by some notable alumni, Barry Bonds and Dustin Pedroia – who was honored pregame following his retirement from Major League Baseball last year. Bonds, notorious for being one of the most-feared hitters in the history of the game, gave some pointers to hitters prior to last Sunday’s series finale against Stanford before the Sun Devils rattled off 53 runs in four games.
Bloomquist is happy to see how his squad has fed off the added guidance from some of the program’s most decorated and influential figures.
“If that’s the case we’ll find somebody else to come in next week and talk to [the team],” Bloomquist quipped. “I think it certainly helps reinforce what we’re talking about. If there was any hesitation in what we’re trying to preach, to hear some of the best in the game preach the same stuff is kind of reassuring.”
Long and Davis seemed to concur with this sentiment, seeing both Bonds and Pedroia in particular as equally effective with the advice they’ve given. This is exactly why when asked which one they would rather be stranded on a desert island with, they truly couldn’t answer.
The Sun Devils are 17-19, they have clinched their third Pac-12 series victory and are perhaps the closest they’ve ever been to eclipsing the .500 plateau since the end of February after they were swept by BYU. They still have no shortage of work to do to get above that mark, but at a point where they are hitting at their current level, it’s a promising stretch.
