Klecker Dominates Former Team, Earns Series-Clinching Win

(Photo: Elijah Longoria/WCSN)

PHOENIX – Kole Klecker threw his arms up in the air, embracing the moment as he walked off the pitcher’s mound at the conclusion of the top of the seventh inning on Sunday.

The crowd, braving the afternoon spring heat of the Valley, serenaded Arizona State’s senior right-hander with a chorus of claps, soon followed by a wave of cheers, reclaiming the local kid as one of their own as he headed toward the dugout.

Klecker returned the favor, showing his love by throwing his index, middle and pinky fingers skyward, forming the “Forks Up” hand sign, a rallying cry for Sun Devil Athletics.

“Just kind of knew that was the outing right there,” Klecker said. “To put kind of (an) exclamation point on it, just get the crowd going and show them who I’m playing for … I won’t forget it.”

Klecker had just tossed seven scoreless innings of two-hit baseball against his former team, No. 17 TCU (11-8, 1-2 Big 12), where he spent the first three seasons of his collegiate career, setting up his new family, ASU (14-5, 2-1), to secure a 4-0 series-clinching victory at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

“Really a performance of a lifetime,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Kept them off-balance all day, just really special. What a great kid and a great story for today. That was outstanding.”

For a moment, it looked like Klecker wasn’t going to be able to make it through seven innings.

The righty found himself with two outs and a runner on first in the frame, when he saw Bloomquist walking out of the dugout and toward the mound.

When the fifth-year head coach reached the bump, the two engaged in a quick conversation, and Bloomquist went back to the dugout with the ball still in his starter’s hands.

“I can’t use all the words,” Bloomquist said. “I asked him, ‘How you feel? You got this guy?’ And he basically looked deep into my soul like, ‘Get off my mound, I got this guy.’ And I said, ‘OK, go get him.’ Sometimes you need to see for yourself in their eyes.”

Klecker only needed two more pitches to retire TCU’s graduate first baseman Rob Liddington and end the frame, getting him to ground out to redshirt sophomore third baseman Austen Roellig.

The outing was something of a full-circle moment for Klecker.

The son of two ASU graduates, he grew up in nearby Chandler, Arizona, and attended Hamilton High, where he threw a complete game to win the State Championship in his senior year.

During his time at Hamilton, Klecker received the first scholarship offer that Bloomquist, then the newly named head coach of the Sun Devils, ever handed out.

Klecker, of course, chose to go to TCU, where he made it to Omaha in his first season, earning Freshman All-American honors from multiple outlets along the way.

The next two seasons as a Horned Frog weren’t as smooth, and when he had the opportunity to return home for his senior season, he jumped on it.

“I wake up and thank God every morning for (me) being here at ASU,” Klecker said. “I didn’t really think it was going to happen, but when it did, I just made sure to dive in and buy into this program … I feel like I’ve played four years here, and it’s only my first, so it’s really special.”

Klecker has embodied what it means to be a Sun Devil, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t feeling a swell of emotions before taking the hill.

The righty knew Sunday wasn’t going to feel like a normal game, due to the love and respect he has for his former teammates standing just across the diamond in the opposing dugout. To keep calm, he took control of his breathing, focused on his mentality and tried to do less, not more.

“If you let the emotions take over, in my opinion, you can end up spiraling, and that’s not what you want to do on the mound,” Klecker said. “I just tried to stay composed. Something I say, and I kind of say it to these guys a lot, ‘Be where my two feet are,’ and just try to be as present as possible.”

Safe to say, it worked.

Klecker was dominant from the start, allowing only one walk in an otherwise perfect first inning. He went on to face the minimum twice in the first four innings, struck out seven over the course of the game, and while he allowed five base runners, the only time back-to-back Horned Frogs reached base was due to an error courtesy of sophomore second baseman Beckett Zavorek in the third inning.

The third was the closest TCU got to scoring off its former pitcher. Junior third baseman Jack Bell recorded the only extra-base hit against Klecker with one out in the frame, doubling into the right-center field gap.

Bell advanced to third base on Zavorek’s error and attempted to score when sophomore center fielder Sawyer Strosnider took a big hack, but was only able to send the ball dribbling out in front of home plate.

Klecker’s battery mate, redshirt sophomore catcher Brody Briggs, was able to pick up the ball and beat Bell home, eliminating the only true threat TCU could muster.

“Heads up play for him to come out of his crouch, retrieve the swinging bunt and beat the runner coming down third to the plate and get a big out there,” Bloomquist said. “That was a big momentum shift.”

Sunday was relatively quiet for the Sun Devils offense, but Klecker’s domination paved the way for victory. After he was relieved in the eighth, senior southpaw Sean Fitzpatrick and junior RHP Derek Schaefer finished the job, earning ASU its first shutout victory since March 4, 2025, against UNLV, and the series win over not only a ranked opponent, but Klecker’s former squad.

“Baseball has kind of that poetry, if you will, that only baseball can give you,” Bloomquist said. “This situation was pretty special for him, for us as a team, for me as a coach. It just came full circle, and he just did a tremendous job today.”