(Photo: Joshua Eaton/WCSN)
PHOENIX — In baseball, they say you live by the long ball and you die by the long ball. Friday night, the Sun Devils electrified Phoenix Municipal Stadium with a half-dozen homers en route to a comfortable victory over BYU.
The offensive outburst saw the Arizona State Sun Devils (27-16, 13-7 Big 12) put up a crooked number in three of the nine innings, along with singular runs in two more, leading to 12 runs on 13 hits. Only having one more hit than run is reflective of the power put on display by ASU. The emphasis on the home runs has been there all year, but has failed to come to fruition in many games over the course of the season.
However, the six homers from ASU today jolted them up to fourth in the Big 12 in that category, passing both TCU and BYU. To this point, it has been a combined approach in the home run department with only a single player, fifth-year senior catcher Josiah Cromwick, in double digits with 11. Friday was a reflection of what, at its peak, head coach Willie Bloomquist’s lineup can look like: elite-level power with the ability to flip the game on its head at any time.
“[I was] pleased with how we swung the bats tonight, that was a good approach. We were able to get some pitches up in the zone and hit some screaming line drives that got out of the ballpark,” Bloomquist said. “…Those guys are grinding, and when it comes to fruition and they go deep, it’s something that they celebrate together.”
After BYU took an early 1-0 lead in the top half of the first, ASU responded with three home runs of its own. Junior outfielder Kien Vu’s two-out solo shot completed the opening inning onslaught for the Sun Devils, who got out to a quick start, something they had lacked most of the season.
“I feel like we haven’t had that great of a start to a game yet, and I know that we can definitely do that again and again, so to jump out there like that, it feels good,” Vu said. “It definitely helps the confidence going into tomorrow’s game and then even the rest of the season.”
Junior third baseman Nu’u Contrades joined Vu, adding a pair of home runs himself, matching the prolific outfielder on the day. By leaving the yard in both the first and seventh innings, Contrades improved his yearly total to six, just two off the mark he set during his impressive freshman season.
“It’s nice whenever we can do that, it’s awesome, [we’ve] just been trying to stick to the approach, and it was awesome seeing our whole offense just explode like that,” Contrades said.
Contrades and Vu combined with senior first basemen Jacob Tobias and redshirt sophomore left fielder Brandon Compton make up the middle of the order, anchoring the ASU line-up. That power-hitting heart of the lineup combined for five of the six long balls during Friday night’s clash, cementing it as one of the best in the Big 12.
“[Tobias] and Contrades, Compton, Vu. If we can get those guys going along with the other guys that are swinging it, it makes it a very difficult lineup to pitch to with no weak spots,” Bloomquist said.
The aforementioned Tobias has an astounding 41 homers in his career and left the yard 18 times in his junior campaign, however, his power has taken a step back this year. The Sun Devils’ first basemen elevating his power as the year progresses towards the postseason would add a whole new dimension to the offense.
“It’s good to see a lot of guys in a row put their best swings out there because we haven’t been able to get on that roll like we have been today this season,” Tobias said. “So just being able to get all those really good and compactful swings up there has been fun to watch.”
Among qualified hitters, Vu leads the Sun Devils in the Big 12 in 20th in the home run tally department, an abnormally low number for a team that ranks second in slugging percentage in the conference. The stat puts on to display the number of doubles ASU hits, the most in conference, 104, and 12 more than the next best team, Arizona, with 92. The long ball carrying the offense is something that has been absent this year, but with its emergence, the Sun Devil offense hits another gear.
“You know, we were able to live by the long ball tonight, which is something we haven’t done in quite a while, and we were able to put up some runs,” Bloomquist said.
