ASU’s late surge falls short of another comeback victory

(Photo: Sammy Nute/WCSN)

PHOENIX — Arizona State baseball is on a scorching stretch in its postseason push as it has won eight of its last nine games — scoring double digit runs six times in that span — including a walk off grand slam by redshirt sophomore outfielder Nick McLain in the tenth inning against Washington on Friday.

But all of a sudden, the momentum came to a screeching halt in the first few innings of the second game of the series against the Huskies.

ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist consistently talks about complete victories and how he believes his team has attained those recently with the hitting and pitching playing well simultaneously. But it seemed Saturday was going to be a complete loss after a ten-run deficit in the first three frames.

However, the Sun Devils (25-23, 13-13 Pac-12) fought back to make it a competitive game with a great bullpen performance from junior right-handed pitcher Jonah Giblin and late offensive push, making it only a 14-9 loss to the Huskies (18-21, 9-14 Pac-12).

It seemed like the game was going to be over early on after a rough start from senior left-handed pitcher Connor Markl, but the fact the Sun Devils threatened a comeback has players like sophomore first baseman Jacob Tobias believing this team can’t be counted out.

“We know we’re never out of the game,” Tobias said. “Markl has been amazing for us all year. He had one bad outing and it stinks, but we all know what he’s done for us the whole year. We didn’t take it any other way than just a challenge. Knowing that we’re never going to be out of a game and that we’re able to swing our way back into pretty much any game. If we literally get like one or two more baserunners, we’re a home run away from being in that game.”

Bloomquist said all year that he put Markl as the Saturday starter because he is “consistent”, which was true throughout the season as the GCU transfer pitched at least five innings and allowed four or less runs in his last seven games. However, the southpaw had his worst start of the season allowing eight earned runs in 2 ⅔ frames, which is both his shortest outing and the most runs he has allowed as a Sun Devil.

Markl has been an innings eater for the Devils as he leads the team with 55 innings pitched, and Bloomquist was hoping he could get a few more frames out of him on Saturday. However, the lefty simply did not have it against the Huskies.

“It wasn’t his night,” Bloomquist said. “Fastball command wasn’t there and for him to be effective with the rest of his repertoire in his arsenal, he’s got to have the fastball command. Didn’t have it tonight. Obviously it wasn’t one of his better outings and it’s going to happen. I was in a quandary there to leave him in and see if we could get him to settle in a little bit and give us some length that we needed. Just didn’t happen and I’m not going to apologize for it, for leaving him out there too long. But on the other hand, we needed to try to get some length out of him to preserve our bullpen for tomorrow…”

Junior left-handed pitcher Matt Cornelius came in for relief of Markl, but he also struggled with command as the two pitchers combined to walk nine Huskies in the first 5+ innings of the game. This is why Giblin’s performance becomes even more impressive: he stabilized what was previously a shaky pitching performance from the Sun Devils.

Not only did Giblin eat innings by pitching five frames, but he was also very effective with seven strikeouts and no earned runs. Bloomquist talked about how the junior is a reliever he can trust with him being one of the few returning pitchers from last year’s squad, but Giblin certainly surpassed his manager’s expectations for this game.

“We have enough bullets for tomorrow,” Bloomquist said. “I think given the job that (Giblin) did coming in and that kind of goes unnoticed for him to give us five solid innings right there. We don’t have to burn another arm. That was big on his part and I was expecting to maybe get two (frames) out of him and then go from there, but he was throwing the heck out of it and threw the ball outstanding.”

Not only does Giblin’s performance help the team for tomorrow, but it gave it a chance to come back on Saturday. The ASU lineup could not get much going early on as Washington senior right-handed pitcher Calvin Kirchoff only allowed a pair of singles his first time through the lineup, but it clearly made some adjustments in its later at-bats.

The Sun Devils scored six of its nine runs in the fifth and sixth innings thanks to home runs from Tobias and senior shortstop Steven Ondina. They eventually figured out Kirchoff as he ended up allowing seven earned runs and 11 hits despite his spectacular start, but it came a little too late for the threat of a comeback victory to truly come to fruition.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that he (Kirchoff) was different than what we expected,” Tobias said. “He definitely just threw a lot of strikes tonight and mixed his pitches really well and all four (pitches) for strikes. When you do that as a starter, it becomes much more difficult for the hitters to stay on every single pitch, especially with the arsenal that he had. I think as the game went on, we made a good adjustment of pitches that we can hit and doing damage with them, but it was just a tough adjustment and I wish we could have made that adjustment a little sooner.”

ASU’s offense is potent and chipped away a bit, but the hole to climb out of was too big because of the early offense from the Huskies. Washington junior left fielder AJ Guerrero was thorn in the side of the Devils with three hits — two of which went over the fence and drove in five runs.

Even though ASU could not complete the comeback win, it now brings some momentum into the rubber match with senior right-handed pitcher Hunter Omlid expected to start on the mound. With barely a winning record overall and a .500 winning percentage in conference play, the Sun Devils need to win the series against a Pac-12 opponent below them in the standings.

“The main focus is to play as best you can,” Bloomquist said. “Can’t control the results as much as we’d like to and chalk up eight straight wins to finish the season. We can’t do that in one day. We just have to go out and play the way we’re capable of and this group plays better when they’re loose, relaxed and having fun. We’re going to attempt to do that again tomorrow.”