PHOENIX — The starting pitching performance on Saturday has become an alarming downward trend for Arizona State baseball, but the context behind a game is often clouded as long as the win column is added to.
After beginning his transition from bullpen arm to starter with four scoreless frames on March 7, junior right-handed pitcher Alex Overbay’s next two appearances on the bump saw him give up a combined 12 hits, six walks and nine earned runs in just 4.1 innings
However, the Sun Devils ultimately won both of those games and series thanks to scoring a combined 33 runs.
With a chance to clinch a crucial in-conference series on the line, the game plan of eventually overcoming the damage set by the game two starter derailed as No. 22 ASU (20-7, 5-3 Big 12) couldn’t recover from surrendering eight runs in the first three innings in a 13-7 loss to No. 17 West Virginia (18-5, 6-2 Big 12) on Saturday.
“We were behind a big eight ball there early on, and couldn’t scratch a way back into it,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “But our guys battled, and we’ve just got to turn the page, get ready for tomorrow.”
Overbay’s struggles with falling behind early in at-bats and allowing contact flared up immediately when the Mountaineers rattled off three singles to score the first run of the game in the top of the first.
Sophomore left fielder Landon Hairston’s sequence of hitting a double, taking third on a wild pitch and coming home on a throwing error squared things away the next frame, yet it would be the last time the Sun Devils were not trailing by at least six runs.
Back-to-back base hits paved the way for a 2-RBI triple and a run scored on a pitch over the head of sophomore catcher Coen Niclai. When needing only one more out to prevent any further damage, Overbay gave up two more hits for two earned runs and an additional unearned run due to two fielding errors occurring on the same play.
Bloomquist let him stay on the mound to start the third before being pulled for loading the bases while recording no outs. His final tally reflected that seven of the 11 Mountaineers he allowed to take base did so while ahead in the count.
“He’s got really good stuff, but stuff doesn’t play when you’re continuously 2-0, 3-0, 3-1, 2-1,” Bloomquist said. “He’s got to work ahead in the counts, bottom line.”
Junior righty Jaden Alba came out of the bullpen in relief, and despite West Virginia stretching its lead to seven on a double steal during his first at-bat, he provided much-needed stability for the Sun Devils in the middle innings.
The southpaw tossed 64 pitches in 3.2 scoreless and hitless innings that saw him excel at inducing weak contact to the tune of nine putouts.
“The score is what it is, but obviously you want to throw up as many zeroes as possible, no matter what the situation is, what the score is,” Alba said. “Just attacking hitters, going right after them and just trying to keep a game close for everybody else to do the same thing.”
Alba alongside junior lefty Brady Louck cooled off the Mountaineers’ bats for four consecutive innings and provided the Sun Devils ample time to start stringing together a comeback attempt.
The root cause of ASU failing to take advantage of such a window was the dominance of West Virginia’s redshirt junior lefty Maxx Yehl. Coming into the contest with a 0.84 ERA, seventh-best in the country, the New York native tamed the red-hot Sun Devil bats to the tune of four punchouts, zero walks and five hits against.
A 405-foot two-run blast from Hairston in the bottom of the fifth turned out to be the only form of resistance offered. Otherwise, most contact off the bat found its way into a leather glove with Yehl picking up a total of 15 strikeouts.
“We had a good approach, I thought, going into him and squared a lot of balls up that were right at guys,” Bloomquist said. “Hit some balls hard, deep that didn’t get out of the ballpark. So I wasn’t disappointed with our offensive approach against him. I thought we did just fine off him.”
Any hopes of a miraculous rally firmly slipped out of ASU’s grasp when junior righty Josh Butler and senior lefty Nick Arnello allowed five combined runs in the final two innings.
The Sun Devils didn’t go quietly in the form of a four-spot during that same span, highlighted by graduate outfielder Matt Polk pinch hitting for sophomore second baseman Beckett Zavorek and crushing a three-run home run over the left field wall in his 22nd at-bat of the season.
“Any way that I get the opportunity to help our team win, and I mean we didn’t win, but help us get one step closer to winning or go in there and show why they brought me in here out of the portal is an amazing opportunity,” Polk said.
Bloomquist mentioned that an evaluation of the starting rotation could occur following the conclusion of the series, but was also vocal about changes to be made on the other side of the ball after Saturday’s result.
“We’re gonna have to shake some things up and try to figure out a way to get some more offense, and whether or not (Polk) moves into the outfield somewhere and move Landon around,” Bloomquist said. “We’ll get creative with it if we have to, but right now we just gotta figure out ways to get some more production out of a couple of those guys.”
If game one’s dominant victory in eight innings displayed what ASU is capable of at its very best, then Saturday’s six-run defeat is an example of the opposite side of the spectrum.
The game two loss forces a rubber match on Sunday to determine if the Sun Devils can pick up third straight in-conference series and second against a ranked opponent.
“I don’t have to have rubber matches and that type of stuff, but it is what it is,” Bloomquist said. “We’re gonna have to be in these type of dog fight games that we anticipate tomorrow being.”
