(Photo: Sydni Griffin/WCSN)
PHOENIX – Following Arizona State baseball’s underwhelming performance in his first year as a skipper, head coach Willie Bloomquist and his staff ventured into the transfer portal, hoping to bolster its roster and bring talent and wins to Tempe.
Months after departing the transfer portal, anticipation naturally built for the 2023 season, with Sun Devil faithful dreaming of a successful season and maybe even some impactful baseball in May.
On Friday night, the anticipation of the 2023 season was finally answered with excitement, as sophomore left fielder Will Rogers stepped into the batter’s box with a tie score, bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth. Rogers singled to left field, driving sophomore catcher Ryan Campos home, and yielding ASU (1-0) a 6-5 walk-off win over the San Diego Aztecs (0-1).
“What a way to start, guys battled,” Bloomquist said. “We had every opportunity to cash that one in – played very sloppy in a lot of ways – but it’s tough to win, tough to win games. They battled tough toward the end and some guys stepped up big time.”
Rogers shined for the Sun Devils all night, notching three hits in five plate appearances. Rogers was effective from his first to last at-bat, starting the night off with a solo home run to left field. From there, Rogers added a diving catch, a single and his aforementioned walk-off base hit.
“I would say – just coming into this game – I’ve been waiting to play since we lost to [Arizona] last year,” Rogers said. “Just been thinking about this day ever since then, pretty much. I was really excited for it. But then also trying to be able to not let that excitement get too big. That happened last year in the first game.”
Rogers had quite the ending to the game, responsible for the tying run in the eighth inning and the game-winning run in the ninth. In the eighth, Rogers reached base on a base hit to left field and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from freshman center fielder Isaiah Jackson. With senior right fielder Wyatt Crenshaw at the plate, Rogers stole third base, setting him 90 feet away from tying the game.
“I’m not quite sure what he was thinking on that stolen base at third,” Bloomquist said. “We had talked about that with that particular guy, but he just decided he was gonna go. All I’m saying is he’s lucky he was safe.”
During that same play, Rogers made contact with a slider, judging he was too early and ahead of junior righty Kelena Sauer’s pitch. Sauer was still on the mound for Rogers’ ninth-inning at-bat, leaving him to believe a slider was coming again.
“I’ve taken a really bad swing – got a hit on it somehow – but taking a bad swing on a slider the at-bat before, so I knew he was going to throw me a slider,” Rogers said. “And I just tried not to get too big. That’s kind of what happened in those moments. You can hear the fans in the box, and you know everybody’s up on the fence, so it’s just kind of letting the ball get there. Trust in yourself, knowing that your adrenaline’s gonna speed up your swing a little bit. And then yeah, I was just hunting that slider.”
Rogers’ big play wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for freshman outfielder Kien Vu, who made his collegiate debut in the ninth as a pinch hitter for freshman third baseman Nu’u Contrades. Vu singled up the middle and was driven home an at-bat later, courtesy of junior second baseman Luke Keaschall’s triple.
“A whole ‘nother Kien I guess just came out like I literally grabbed my bat – it was probably halfway through the top ninth. And [Bloomquist] told me that I might be leading off. Right then, I just grabbed all my gear, put it on,” Vu said.
Starting left-handed pitcher Ross Dunn struggled in 2 2/3 innings pitched, allowing two hits on 47 pitches. Bloomquist replaced Dunn with redshirt junior righty Christian Bodlovich, who ended the second inning with a strikeout, setting up junior right-hander Owen Stevenson for the third inning. Stevenson threw four innings in relief, granting five hits and two runs on 66 pitches.
“When he attacks the zone, his stuff plays outstanding,” Bloomquist said about Stevenson’s pitching. “I think he was tipping his pitches a little bit, which was why they kind of start putting some wood on him toward the end there, but his stuff was still good enough to get out of it.”
The Sun Devils scored in crucial moments on Friday, but the offense left six runners on base and suffered from poor base running. Keaschall and Campos were both picked off and the offense lost runners due to trying to stretch base hits to doubles.
“There was some ugly base running, really ugly,” Bloomquist said. “That was what I was probably – from an offensive standpoint – that was the most disappointing thing of the night for me. We work on that stuff and making sure the left-hander goes to the plate and those guys are like, ‘well he was leaning.’ Yeah, I don’t care. I don’t care, you got to see the ball out of hand right there in those counts.”
A walk-off win on Opening Night sends many emotions to everyone involved with the program. Those emotions can help in other games, especially with two more games against the Aztecs.
“That’s why you play,” Bloomquist said. “I guess – at the end of the day when you have those moments – those are what you remember. And the best teams I’ve been on in my life were teams that won late and walked off. I mean that’s like two wins right there, especially with the early game coming back tomorrow. You got to you ride that emotional high and come back and hopefully use that to your advantage tomorrow.”
