(Photo: Sammy Nute/WCSN)
PHOENIX—There aren’t a lot of things that head coach Willie Bloomquist expects of his players when it comes to their on-field performance. Sure, he might ask them to compete on both sides of the ball. He might ask them to lay down a bunt or steal a bag, but there is just one thing that Bloomquist expects from his players.
He expects high effort.
“I told these guys I better never have to teach body language and effort level,” Bloomquist said. “If you don’t give me your all, then you’re going to be sitting by me, and you’re not going to play.”
It’s simple. Low effort means low playing time. Exhibiting that effort is just the baseline of playing baseball at Arizona State. Without it, you will never see the field, but it’s often difficult to find where that effort tangibly affects the game.
In ASU (2-0) walk off 7-6 win over Ohio State (0-2) it was easy to find where the high effort plays made a big difference. All you have to do is look at the ninth inning rally that the Sun Devils put together for their second comeback victory in as many nights.
Down one run entering the ninth inning, senior shortstop Matt King led off the inning by flying out to right, bringing up redshirt freshman catcher Brody Briggs. Along with the high effort, Bloomquist also expects good body language, and noone emphasizes this more than Briggs.
While redshirting his freshman season last year, Briggs was stuffed down on the depth chart and relegated to bullpen duty, catching hundreds of bullpens. Deemed as the catcher of the future by Bloomquist, Briggs was ready to take over for Ryan Campos, but a late ruling by the NCAA allowed graduate catcher Josiah Cromwick to return.
Instead of being down about it, Briggs went right back to work and earned a start on the second day of the season. He rewarded Bloomquist’s confidence by going 3-for-4, including a one-out single in the ninth to get the inning started.
“(Briggs has) just continued to keep his mouth shut, work hard, and try to be a leader of sorts out there,” Bloomquist said. “For him to get his first start, first opportunity, and come up huge… that one was exciting for me.”
The next high-effort play in the ninth was one of two that saved the game for ASU. After sophomore infielder Jax Ryan pinch ran for Briggs, senior infielder Kyle Walker rolled into what appeared to be a game-ending double-play. But for the second time already this season, Walker’s speed was just too much as he beat out the throw, spoiling the double play turn and keeping ASU alive.
Junior infielder Nu’u Contrades walked, moving Walker, who represented the tying run, into scoring position. With two outs, junior outfielder Kien Vu stepped up to the plate. Earlier in the game, Vu’s effort might have cost ASU a run.
Standing on third with two outs and down one run in the seventh, junior outfielder Kien Vu was attempting to distract the pitcher by running halfway to home. Noticing that the Buckeyes weren’t paying attention to Vu, Bloomquist called for Vu to steal home and tie the game.
However, Vu was just one step late leaving, resulting in the third out being made at home plate.
“I don’t want to say there was a miscommunication there, but I gave him the green light to go, and I was hoping he was going to go when [the pitcher] was coming set versus waiting for when he came set. That cost us about half a step, which is all it took.”
Looking to make up for that earlier mistake, Vu stepped up to the plate as ASU’s potential last chance. He rolled over a 0-1 pitch, dribbling it to the shortstop. But a double-clutch from junior infielder Marc Stephens and a really hard 90 from Vu caused him to beat the throw, keeping ASU alive once again and loading the bases for sophomore outfielder Brandon Compton.
Compton took care of the rest. Lining a sharp single that dropped just in front of junior centerfielder Reggie Bussey, scoring two runs and clinching the game for ASU.
“As soon as it was on the ground, I was like, I better beat this out and get it to Compton,” Vu said. “That’s what happened, and here we are.”
These high effort plays are the bare minimum for an admitted ‘old-school’ coach like Willie Bloomquist, but on Saturday they were the difference in another back and forth battle that ended as one-run game.
“Happy and proud of these guys that are continuing to grind,” Bloomquist said. “We haven’t played our best baseball. It’s only been a couple games, but they keep being resilient and keep battling back even when you know we’re down to our last out there.”
