(Photo via: Samantha Maxwell/WCSN)
PHOENIX — Last season Arizona State Baseball defeated Arizona on April 23 to reach 20 wins. On Tuesday night, the Sun Devils entered a midweek game against Seattle with the chance to tally their 20th victory two and a half weeks earlier than head coach Willie Bloomquist’s first campaign.
In an 11-6 victory over the Redhawks (7-18, 5-7 WAC), the Sun Devils (20-9, 8-2 Pac-12) got that 20th win, making it the earliest ASU has reached the mark since the 2019 team that opened the season with 21 straight victories. Not only was it the fastest the Sun Devils reached the mark since 2019, but they are also the first to tally 20 wins in the Pac-12 this year, doing so in just 29 games.
One of the main contributors to the Sun Devils’ early season success is the their newfound pitching depth. Bloomquist claimed in the offseason that his team’s staff would be much better than the Pac-12’s worst staff a year ago.
Bloomquist’s trust in his staff can be seen in his use of bullpen games this season. All seven midweek games for the Sun Devils this season have featured some combination of relievers to get them through nine innings. It often features a starting pitcher that throws two to three innings before giving way to the next pitcher. He takes the next couple of innings, and so on, until all nine innings are complete.
So far this season, Bloomquist has been rewarded by the trust in his staff. In the seven midweek games this year, the Sun Devils are 5-2, with their only two losses coming in Stillwater against No. 16 Oklahoma State.
In Tuesday’s win over the Redhawks, Bloomquist once again utilized his bullpen, featuring eight different arms, allowing five earned runs, seven hits, while striking out five. The amount of arms he has been using has allowed Bloomquist to learn which reliever fits best where, something he couldn’t do last year.
“I think that’s part of the learning process,” Bloomquist said. “Who we can use when and how many days they need in between kind of their appearances based on how much they threw that day. That’s something we’re starting to learn and get better, knowing that if we get a certain guy hot. We got to use him and how long we can use him that that type of thing.”
While five earned runs put some teams in trouble, the Sun Devil offense has been potent enough to make it feel comfortable. Once again, the ASU bats were on fire as they scored double-digit runs for the third time in six games, and it was the familiar faces getting the offense going.
Sophomore catcher Ryan Campos, junior infielder Luke Keaschall and freshman infielder Nu’u Contrades have all been on fire since the beginning of conference play. On Tuesday, the trio combined to go 8-for-12 at the plate, scoring eight of the team’s 11 runs.
Campos’s 4-for-4 night extended his hitting streak to 10 games and he has been an on-base machine all year. He is second in the Pac-12 to only Stanford sophomore star two-way player Braden Montgomery with a monstrous .537 on-base percentage. Plus, the Mesa native has reached base successfully in 28 of the team’s 29 games.
“Campy is a guy you can kind of take for granted,” Bloomquist said. “I think just because he shows up every day and he’s a pro and you kind of come to just expect it. It’s not fair, but that’s the standard that he set for himself and for our team. Campy is going to be there, and he’s going to do something special pretty much every day (…) He really is the cornerstone of that entire offense.”
Moving forward, the Sun Devils will welcome Washington State for a three game set beginning Thursday. The Cougars got off to a strong start to the year before stumbling in March, but they will be riding high coming off of a huge series win over UCLA this past weekend.
“Their bullpen is pretty good,” Bloomquist said about the Cougars. “They got very capable starters, and they’re gonna be a handful. We’re gonna have to come out and attack the strike zone from the pitching side, and offensively, we’re gonna have to control the plate.”
