Sun Devils lack intensity in 6-3 loss to rival USC

(Photo: Joshua Eaton/WCSN)

PHOENIX — Like any player or coach, there are a few opponents that Arizona State baseball head coach Willie Bloomquist has extra motivation to face. Naturally, as an alum of the school who spent three years in Tempe from 1997-99, Arizona tops that list being the Sun Devils’ most hated rival.

But there’s another team that Bloomquist ‘hates’: USC. For years, the two institutions were conference mates in the Pac-12, and the Sun Devils’ skipper faced the Trojans 15 times as a player, including a loss in the 1998 College World Series final, and nine more as a coach heading into Tuesday’s midweek affair.

Playing against USC is special to not only Bloomquist, but to the entire program. That’s a big reason why north of 4,500 fans were at Phoenix Municipal Stadium to watch the matchup. While current players may not fully grasp the tradition, they are expected to, at the very least, bring a bit extra juice for these types of rivalry games — even though they’re no longer conference matchups.

That intensity Bloomquist longed for his group to kindle wasn’t there on Tuesday, though. Scoring three runs on nine hits and leaving seven on base, the Sun Devils (14-7) put forth a sluggish effort in a 6-3 defeat to USC (11-9).

“These guys know what playing USC is supposed to mean,” Bloomquist said. “I wear this one, but nobody wants to beat USC as bad as I do, I don’t think, and I was hoping to see a little bit more of that passion tonight.”

Trailing 1-0 in the second inning thanks to an RBI triple from sophomore first baseman Dean Carpentier, it appeared the Sun Devils found that intensity. After a leadoff double from senior first baseman Jacob Tobias, junior outfielder Isaiah Jackson slammed a double into left-center field that easily scored his teammate. Freshman outfielder Landon Hairston, the very next batter, singled up the middle to give ASU the lead.

While sophomore righty Wyatt Halvorson, who is working back from an illness, allowed four baserunners and one run in two solid innings, Bloomquist elected to pull him at the beginning of the third frame in favor of sophomore right-hander Josh Butler. USC pounced on Butler early, as third baseman Ethan Hedges crushed his sixth pitch of the outing, sending a solo blast well over the “National Champions” sign in right field.

The Sun Devils didn’t score for the next four innings, but that’s not to say they didn’t make contact and get their fair share of chances. In the fifth, freshman catcher Brody Briggs and junior second baseman Kyle Walker each singled with no outs, but were promptly stranded after a flyout from sophomore outfielder Brandon Compton and junior third baseman Nu’u Contrades hitting into a 6-4-3 double play.

“As an offense, I feel like we’re pretty aggressive,” sophomore shortstop Jax Ryan said. “We put a lot of balls in play, just missing balls underneath, hitting line drives right at people. It’s baseball. You can’t really help that.”

Holding USC to six runs at Phoenix Municipal should be enough to win most games, but on Tuesday, that wasn’t the case. Senior righty Will Koger entered the game in the fifth to relieve Butler, who conceded a two-run shot to outfielder Brayden Dowd, and started off strong, inducing two straight outs to end the inning. He put up another zero in the sixth but again encountered trouble in the seventh.

After junior shortstop Bryce Grudzielanek reached on a leadoff single, Carpentier struck again with another extra-base hit; this time a two-run homer into center field. Just like that, the game was blown wide open, and ASU needed to simply limit the damage. So, it turned to sophomore lefty Cole Carlon, who struck out the first two batters he saw to get out of the inning.

Junior righty Lucas Kelly then closed out the game’s final inning and faced the minimum, but the damage was done.

“(I) thought we did enough to stay in the game on the pitching front,” Bloomquist said. “Just (the) offensive performance was very lackluster and not intense the way we want it to be. Some guys swung the bats okay, but there was way too much inconsistency to put any type of rallies together… I was expecting a lot better.”

The Sun Devils scraped across one more run in the seventh as Walker drove in Ryan with a single into left field, but that was all they mustered. Overall, it was a somewhat uninspired effort that left a bad taste in Bloomquist’s mouth.

But it isn’t just a rivalry game that ASU needs to find intensity for — the rest of the Big 12 schedule will be anything but easy. Capitalizing on opportunities and generating offense, especially at home, will be paramount against Kansas, who is 17-4 and comes to Phoenix for a three-game series this weekend.

“I think we just have to take this loss off the chin,” Walker said. “We were a little flat today, but I don’t think that’s going to change what we’re going to do this weekend. We’re going to come out guns blazing, ready to get after (Kansas).”