(Photo: Aiden Longbrake/WCSN)
PHOENIX – Arizona State baseball’s Friday night walloping of West Virginia featured nearly all the elements you would expect of such a game: A conga line of hits, barrages of home runs, and an otherworldly diving catch.
Notably absent among the highlight reel was the dominant start from an ace pitcher under the lights, shutting down the opposing team by enforcing his will.
It was a performance that Sun Devils junior left-handed starter Cole Carlon wasn’t able to offer against West Virginia.
Carlon crawled his way through 4.1 innings pitched – his lowest mark since earning the Friday role – and gave up three earned runs off the back of a career-high eight hits allowed and a walk. It could’ve been a recipe for disaster against such a dangerous adversary.
Luckily for the southpaw, No. 22 ASU’s (20-6, 5-2 Big 12) bullpen and offense pulled through, picking him up and defeating No. 17 WVU (17-5, 5-2) 14-4 in eight innings, walking it off in the final frame by pushing its lead to 10 runs.
Still, despite the team’s victory, Friday is almost certainly a start that Carlon would like back.
“That was a grueling game,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Carlon wasn’t as sharp as he normally is, but tip your hats to those guys (WVU), they made him work for every single pitch that he threw.”
The Mountaineers stepped into the batter’s box against Carlon ready to battle, working deep counts and peppering the ball around the field. The lefty found himself in three-ball counts seven times throughout the night, leading to three hits and a walk, as well as an elevated pitch count.
By the end of the third inning, Carlon had thrown 69 pitches, and when Bloomquist came to take him out of the game in the fifth, he was up to 95.
“They have a very disciplined approach,” Bloomquist said. “They make an adjustment, they shorten up, stay inside the baseball and then they battle and make you work for every that you get.”
WVU’s patience paid dividends throughout the night, directly leading to the runs it scored.
Mountaineers sophomore shortstop Matt Ineich led off the game with Carlon’s lone walk, and was driven home by sophomore second baseman Gavin Kelly on the sixth pitch of his at-bat. An inning later, it was graduate designated hitter Sean Smith who did the damage, working a nine-pitch at-bat that featured five straight foul balls and culminated in an RBI single.
Carlon made it through the third, fighting through a couple of base knocks, and avoided a catastrophe in the fourth inning thanks to a WVU base running blunder that resulted in a double play.
It started with Carlon fielding a tapper back toward the mound and throwing to first for one out. While that was happening, Mountaineers senior catcher Matthew Graveline was advancing from second to third, seemingly thinking that Smith, who was on third base, would head home. That forced the lead runner to scamper toward the plate, where he was met with a tag.
That wasn’t the end of his troubles, however.
When Carlon was pulled in the fifth inning, it was after he had allowed an infield single to WVU’s senior centerfielder Paul Schoenfeld. Sophomore right-hander Taylor Penn came into the game understanding the situation and the fight of the Mountaineers’ lineup.
“You just had to think we had one runner on,” Penn said. “You just got to calm the game down and get your outs one at a time.
Unfortunately, Penn gave up a double to graduate first baseman Brodie Kresser, allowing Schoenfeld to score and tacking on a third run against Carlon. From there, though, he hunkered down, leading the charge for the bullpen with 2.2 innings of one-run baseball before passing the baton to fellow sophomore righty Finn Edwards.
Friday night marked the second straight start in which the southpaw allowed three runs in five innings or fewer, raising his ERA nearly a full point from 2.77 to 3.57 over the past two weeks.
The starts haven’t come against the easiest of opponents, with Kansas State, who he faced on the road a week ago, boasting the second-best run scoring offense in the conference and WVU sitting at a respectable seventh.
Still, the Sun Devils will likely need their Friday night starter to do better than sporting a 5.79 ERA across two starts.
It hasn’t been all negatives for Carlon, though. He flashed his nasty stuff against the Mountaineers, getting seven strikeouts throughout the course of the night, while missing bats with his changeup – a new pitch that he worked on adding over the offseason.
He’s also proved he can go against some of the better teams in collegiate baseball, throwing four no-hit innings against then-No. 4 Mississippi State before running into trouble in the fifth and allowing just one run through five against No. 17 TCU just two weekends ago.
Carlon has already proven to be a lively arm, one that Bloomquist isn’t going to give up on after just a few rough outings.
“I don’t get overly caught up in what he’s doing as far as on the negative side,” Bloomquist said. “All I know is that kid’s out there competing every single pitch. He’s developing as a pitcher every time he goes out.
“He’s going to have some ups and downs just like everybody, but what do I expect of him in his next start? To go compete the way he’s been competing.”
