(Photo: Joey Plishka/WCSN)
TEMPE– Sophomore third baseman Ethan Long was unusually quiet in the power department through Arizona State Baseball’s first 14 games this season. With no home runs and a .404 slugging percentage to boot coming into the series opener against San Francisco, he appeared due for that one big hit.
In the seventh inning, with ASU ahead 4-3, the slugger got just what he was looking for.
“It felt really good off the bat, I kinda knew it but I also didn’t cause it’s been awhile,” Long said. “I’ll be the first one to say it, I haven’t been executing my job so far this year. It felt really good.”
After working the count full, Long blasted a monstrous grand slam – unleashing a massive bat flip on his way down to first base – relinquishing any chance the Dons had at clawing back into the ballgame. The Sun Devils cruised to an 8-5 win as a result, snapping their five-game home losing streak.
While Long’s homer proved to be the knockout punch, redshirt junior left-hander Adam Tulloch delivered all the other blows in between. He has solidified his role as the Friday night ace for the staff, and a season-high 13 strikeout, seven inning performance against the Dons furthered that narrative.
“I found when I get ahead and get that 1-2, 0-2 count I’m very effective,” Tulloch said. “That was my focus going into tonight and I thought it worked out very well. When you get ahead you can do a lot of things.”
Head coach Willie Bloomquist thought that Tulloch didn’t even have his best stuff, despite the career night.
“I don’t even think he had his best stuff tonight,” Bloomquist said. “Sam [Peraza] and I were talking and his fastball was 90-91 and it didn’t have the same life as it has in the past but he still managed 13 punch outs. He’s showing why he is a big piece of our rotation.”
Tulloch struck out the side in the second and seventh inning, dominating throughout on a consistent basis. But, the Dons drew first blood in the third against Tulloch, plating two runs on three doubles from graduate right fielder Kyle Knell, junior catcher Michael Campagna and sophomore third baseman Mario Demera.
The third Dons run came on a wild pitch in the sixth, but that was all until the ninth for San Francisco.
“I think that six-hour bus ride from UC Irvine that kinda beats a little bit out of you, but I knew I needed to come with some energy,” Tulloch said. “I knew I didn’t have my best stuff coming into it but you kinda have to work with what you got.”
Redshirt sophomore center fielder Joe Lampe responded to the two-run third inning with his team-leading fifth home run of the season in the bottom half, a solo shot to straightaway center to get ASU on the board.
“I knew I hit it pretty good,” Lampe said. “All the strength and weightlifting I did in the offseason I expect results. I expect it to be consistently more hard hits.”
The Sun Devils’ were one swing away from breaking things open in the sixth, where Long mashed a triple off the right-center field wall to score redshirt sophomore shortstop Sean McLain all the way from first. Two consecutive walks loaded the bases with nobody out, setting up a golden chance.
Redshirt sophomore catcher Nate Baez struck out and freshman left fielder Will Rogers followed it up by bouncing into an inning-ending double play. At the end of the night this was a moot point, but it shows where the Sun Devils bats have been versus where they can be when they cash in, like they did in the seventh.
“We care a lot, I hate losing,” Long said. “To be able to have tonight where we swing the bats and come out and score some runs and have [Tulloch] throw the ball like he does every week, we’re on the right track.”
Sophomore right-hander Jared Glenn came in for the eighth and pitched a scoreless frame, but he let up a pair of runs on three hits before getting the final out in the ninth to close things out.
ASU’s long weekend is just getting started, but the Sun Devils might have to go through the rest of it without freshman second baseman Alex Champagne, who was hit on his hand with a pitch in the seventh that warranted a substitution for freshman infielder Cam Magee. His status for the rest of the weekend is up in the air but as thin as the Sun Devils are up the middle, another injury is the last thing they need.
“We’re getting awfully thin up the middle,” Bloomquist said. “It hurts to lose anybody at this point in time. We’ll have to get creative because we are out of middle infielders.”
Regardless, in front of a packed house on a Friday night – with 6,207 in attendance– the Sun Devils showed what they can do when they put together a full performance on the field. Now, it comes down to stringing things together ahead of Pac-12 Conference play.
