Hometown hero Klecker saves Sun Devils from elimination

(Photo: Connor Gleason/WCSN)

LINCOLN – On Friday night, not only did Arizona State lose, but it lost in 14 innings. A long game like that forced head coach Willie Bloomquist to utilize more of his pitchers than he wanted to.

Bloomquist was adamant after the game that he would need his starter on Saturday to give as many innings as possible.

Enter Kole Klecker.

The senior pitcher started Saturday and delivered just what Bloomquist requested. Klecker’s eight-inning performance helped the Sun Devils (38-20, 19-11 Big 12) dominate South Dakota State (24-33, 12-15 Summit League) 17-0 in their first elimination game.

“Huge resilience from our guys to bounce back today after a marathon game last night where they left everything on the field,” Bloomquist said. “We came up a little short yesterday, so for them to bounce back today was huge. Can’t say enough about the job Kole Klecker did, keeping us in there, keeping zeros on the board.”

Klecker ended Saturday’s game with a career-high 13 strikeouts, including two in each of the first five innings. Not only that, but he also kept dealing scoreless frames for eight innings, allowing Bloomquist to use only one reliever.

The Sun Devils put in four different relief pitchers in their loss to Ole Miss, leaving the bullpen options for Saturday or even a potential Sunday game scarce. Klecker’s eight innings allowed Bloomquist to save some of his other relievers, such as redshirt junior Colin Linder and graduate Colby Guy.

“The job that [Klecker] did to give us some length,” Bloomquist said. Put up zeros for us. He gave our bullpen a chance to rest, which was just huge. It was exactly what we needed today.”

Early on, the Sun Devil offense wasn’t giving much run support, forcing Klecker to hold the line waiting for runs. In the fifth inning, he got some. A lot of some. The senior had to sit around in the dugout for over 40 minutes while his team put up an 11-spot.

“Yeah, I mean, it is a little bittersweet because they’re scoring runs for you,” Klecker said. “But they’re making you wait an hour, especially when I was in a good rhythm and groove. You have to keep the emotions in check and move around when I can. I actually ended up going down to the bullpen a little bit and played some catch when it was getting super long.”

By the time his final inning rolled around, the Sun Devils were already leading 17-0, and the senior was up over 100 pitches. Bloomquist then walked out to the mound to check on Klecker and see if he wanted to come out.

Klecker stared his head coach down as if to say, “Get off of my mound”.

“He was up there at around 110 pitches,” Bloomquist said. “I wanted to get a sense of what he was feeling at that point in time because that is a lot of pitches for him. I wanted to make sure he was still feeling good, so I let him know to empty the tank. I got the response I was looking for when I went out there.”

Klecker followed that interaction up by striking out his last batter to end the eighth inning. As he walked off the mound, he let out a scream, followed by raising his hand in the shape of the Sun Devil pitchfork above his head as he did in his first shutout of the season against TCU.

The Chandler, Arizona, native was recruited heavily by Bloomquist out of high school when he first got to ASU. However, he decided to start his career at TCU.

In Texas, Klecker dominated as a freshman, including appearing in two College World Series games. From there, Klecker had an up-and-down career at TCU, leading him to enter the transfer portal prior to his senior year.

Bloomquist saw a hometown guy that he recruited out of high school with postseason experience, and immediately tried to get him. Luckily for the Sun Devils, Klecker agreed to come back home.

Klecker showed his experience and his passion to be at ASU on Saturday, while allowing the Sun Devils to stay alive in the NCAA Tournament. ASU will return to the field on Sunday afternoon after avoiding elimination.

“Obviously, it’s win or go home,” Klecker said. “There’s a little more pressure on this game, and then what we went through earlier this morning with the long one, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I had to go out there and compete. And then early on, just kind of established a really good three-pitch mix, and we were just pitching off, all three of those pitches. The defense played great behind me.”