(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)
Coming off arguably their hottest stretch of the season, the Sun Devils rode a five-game winning streak on their way to Corvalis where the No. 5 Oregon State awaited as Arizona State baseball’s toughest test yet.
However, the Beavers (26-4, 8-3 Pac-12) reminded ASU (15-17, 6-9 Pac-12) what the top of college baseball looks like, sweeping the Sun Devils across three contests. The Sun Devil offense played well in games one and two, plating at least seven runs against a good Oregon State pitching staff in both games.
Saturday saw Oregon State junior right-hander Jacob Kmatz throw a complete game while allowing just one run on just four hits. Arguably the more impressive feat is that the Albuquerque, New Mexico native threw all nine innings in under 100 pitches, otherwise known as a Maddux.
The Beavers are going to be by far ASU’s toughest test remaining, and the schedule lightens up over the next few series. But the Sun Devils are going to have to start stacking series wins if they want a chance at any playoff baseball come May.
Here are five takeaways from the series against Oregon State.
Sun Devil Staff Can’t Handle Beaver Bats
As mentioned above, without Burns, the Sun Devil pitching staff is not built to last or really compete. Even across their five game winning streak, the ASU offense had to kick into high gear as the staff allowed an average of eight runs per game. So, the trip up to Corvallis did not bode well for ASU defensively. The Beavers offense ranks as the by far the Pac-12’s best offensive team. They rank at the top of nearly every major hitting statistic in the conference, and the team as a whole is hitting at an absurd rate, slashing .332/.451/.602 as a team. A WHOLE TEAM. Led by potential No. 1 pick junior infielder Travis Bazzana, the Beavers are an offense that has weapons one through nine .
So, keeping that in mind, the Sun Devils trotted out freshman Bradyn Barnes to make his first career start at the collegiate level as their Friday starter in place of Burns. It went about as well as expected, and Barnes got just one out, surrendering a leadoff homer to Bazzana and walking two other batters. Junior righty Matt Tieding replaced Barnes, but he was lit up for six runs on eight hits in just 3.2 innings.
Oregon State would get out to another hot start in game 2, tagging senior lefty Connor Markl for two runs in both the first and fifth innings in what was otherwise a solid start for the GCU transfer. The Beavers continued to beat up on freshman, however, as righty Wyatt Halvorson allowed five earned runs in the eighth inning, securing Oregon State the 9-1 win.
Sunday saw sophomore lefty Ben Jacobs struggle the most out of anyone. In just 2.1 innings, Jacobs allowed seven earned runs on eight hits and two walks. Bazzana greeted ASU once again with a leadoff homer in the first, and the floodgates opened from there.
–Sammy Nute
Vu’s New Emergence
Sophomore outfielder Kien Vu started 28 games last year and is in his second season as a Sun Devil, but is now really starting to make an impact as ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist can’t take him out of the lineup.
Vu played the fourth outfielder role last year, starting most of his games when redshirt sophomore Nick McLain missed the first two months with a broken left hamate bone. Even though McLain began this season with a broken right hamate bone, he missed less time and it appeared that Vu was the odd man out with only starting five of the team’s first 27 games.
Despite Vu not starting much, he stayed ready off the bench with nine pinch-hit appearances in that span. The San Diego native’s patience paid off as Bloomquist inserted him into the lineup against California on March 30 and he never looked back.
Vu started the last five games and collected eight hits during that stretch, including five knocks against Oregon State this past weekend. Vu’s recent success becomes a good problem for Bloomquist as he now has four quality outfielders to start, so the manager had to get creative with how to play them all against the Beavers. Bloomquist started Vu at first base on Friday despite it being a position he has not played in college, but it worked as the sophomore reached base three times in the game.
The Sun Devil moved back to the outfield on Saturday and could not replicate his success for the second game, but no Devil could as OSU junior right-handed pitcher Jacob Kmatz threw a Maddux, a term coined after MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux for throwing a complete game in less than a 100 pitches.
ASU’s lineup got back on track Sunday by scoring seven runs and Vu was in the middle of the action with three hits, including his second home run of the season. It’s also noteworthy that Vu hit second in the lineup for this game, which is the highest spot he has hit in the batting order this season.
The Sun Devils already have a strong lineup that averages over six runs per game, but Vu’s emergence adds another cog to a well-oiled machine.
– Justin de Haas
Weak Wins Aren’t Enough to Make Tournament
ASU skidded during the final months of the 2023 season, resulting in them being among the first teams left out of the NCAA Tournament. Now in 2024, games and series like that of which the Sun Devils played against Oregon State could be a deciding factor for whether they make the postseason.
At least for now, ASU has proved they can win games against weaker teams after a five-game winning streak including a sweep over Cal. But getting swept by the Beavers shows that they aren’t yet capable of competing with some of the top teams in college baseball.
It’s difficult to expect success against a top-five team in the country, but it really is that simple. Because of the hole that ASU dug themselves in without almost any signature wins and bad losses, ASU has to get a hold of a few upset wins to prove they can be competitive enough to make the tournament.
Prior to the series against The Beavers, Baseball America projected ASU to be among the first four out in the tournament. There’s still a lot of season left for the Sun Devils to show they can take a game or two from top teams but if they want to get out of the “first four out” range or worse they need to continue to beat weaker teams and at least stay competitive in big games.
– Justin Carter
Strong Two-Out Hitting
Save for a 9-1 defeat on Saturday, the Sun Devils mostly kept pace with Oregon State offensively despite not leading at any point in the series, posting over six runs on Friday and Sunday and erasing — or cutting into — multi-run deficits on both. What’s more impressive about ASU’s output at the plate is the success it found with two outs on the board.
In total, ten of the 16 runs head coach Willie Bloomquist’s team posted in Corvallis came with no room for error. The Sun Devils went a combined 12-for-33 with two outs, hitting .440 in such situations during games one and three. While ASU got off to a slow start on Friday, failing to score in the opening three innings and falling behind 5-0, it found its stride in the fourth, rattling off three, all coming with two outs.
With runners on second and third, redshirt freshman Brandon Compton knocked a two-RBI single into center field before being driven in by a single from sophomore outfielder Isaiah Jackson to make the score 5-3. ASU’s final two-out rally of the evening came an inning later — following a two-run fourth from the Beavers — courtesy of Vu, who scored junior backstop Ryan Campos with an RBI single.
During the third frame on Sunday, the Sun Devils found themselves in a much similar situation to those they faced the two games prior, as they trailed by a handful of runs early. Down 4-0, senior infielders Mario Demera and Steven Ondina were retired in succession to start the inning, but Campos kept ASU alive with a single.
Vu then launched a two-run shot over Oregon State’s “National Champions” wall in left field and started a string of two-out damage, which included an RBI single from graduate infielder Eamonn Lance and junior infielder Jacob Tobias later buying him enough time to score from third and tie the game. Campos and Vu contributed two more RBI base hits in the fourth to once again tie the game, this time at seven.
While the Sun Devils came up short in all three games in the Pacific Northwest, their ability to deliver with their backs against the wall is certainly a bright spot from the series. ASU’s offense continuing to put runs on the board against Pac-12 opponents is also a breath of fresh air, as the lineup struggled to generate offense for the majority of March.
– Sean Brennan
Eamonn Lance, More Than Just a Benchwarmer
For almost the entirety of the season, Compton has been penciled in as ASU’s designated hitter. He’s done well in that role, hitting .330, a figure that ranks second on the team. However, a player who might be getting overshadowed by Compton right now is Lance. While he’s not the usual starter, Lance has hit a respectable .267 in 15 at-bats across four starts this season.
Furthermore, even with the small sample size of 23 plate appearances, the graduate transfer leading the team with a .750 slugging percentage is notable. Lance also paces the team in slugging against conference opponents with a .938 percentage on 18 plate appearances. Lance has been reliable when called upon, and this was no different in Corvallis.
While the series .200 batting average looks uninspiring on its surface, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Lance was the sole reason ASU avoided a shutout on Saturday when he hit a solo shot to left center as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning. That was enough to earn him the start on Sunday.
On Sunday, Lance hit an RBI single that brought the game back within one run. This was followed by him reaching third on a Tobias single. ASU reached into a bag of tricks and faked a steal to second, allowing Lance to reach home plate and tie the game up. Lance was the only player to have an RBI in all three games of the weekend series. He now has seven RBIs in the last six outings.
– Tyler Weiss
