(Photo: Sam Fenway/WCSN)
PHOENIX – For Arizona State baseball, Sunday’s rubber match presented a final opportunity for the Sun Devils to stay in the race for Omaha. A series loss at home against Utah would spell disaster for ASU’s chances at a potential playoff appearance come May.
However, Sunday’s game mirrored the Sun Devil season in many ways. Beginning with back-to-back-to-back jacks, ASU could not have gotten off to a better offensive start, and after scoring both the second and third inning, the Sun Devils were in good position to take the third game of the series, arguably getting their season back on track.
But, after five runs in the first three innings, ASU went scoreless the remainder of the game, mustering just three hits in the remaining six frames. The pitching didn’t deliver much better, allowing 11 runs on 14 hits and four home runs, and as a result, the Sun Devils (16-20, 7-11 Pac-12) lost the rubber match to Utah (23-11, 9-6 Pac-12) 11-5.
“I wasn’t disappointed with the approach, obviously disappointed in the results,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “We talked about results, but you can’t control the results. We put a lot of good at bats together off those guys. We just didn’t get a bunch to fall in.”
For all of ASU’s worrying about controlling only what they can control, arguably the beginning of all their problems stems from something that was completely out of it. Before the year even began, Bloomquist was blindsided by all seven of his draft-eligible arms being signed and shipped off to their respective minor league locations, forcing the Sun Devils to trust many freshmen and overall inexperienced arms.
Fast forward two months into the season, and the ASU pitching situation has gotten even more dire. Freshman righty Thomas Burns developed into an ace throughout his first six starts, but an injury has sidelined him since the end of March. Projected Sunday starter senior righty Tyler Meyer struggled mightily in his starting role coming off of a shoulder injury, so Sunday has been a bit of a mystery all season to see who would be starting.
With no Friday starter and no Sunday starter, managing through this stretch of the season has been brutal for Bloomquist.
“Every year and every week has had its challenges in one way shape or form,” Bloomquist said. “Whether we’re going good or not so good, there hasn’t exactly been calm waters yet in my first three years. I, quite frankly, don’t know what it’s like to have calm waters. If we ever do get a man, it’s going to be sunsets and martinis.”
Bloomquist is correct. Throughout his first two-and-a-half years as Sun Devil head coach, the lowest team ERA the Sun Devils have had is 6.74, coming in 2023 when ASU, as mentioned above, had seven professional-level arms at its disposal. So far, 2024 has been the worst team pitching performance by way of ERA, clocking in at 6.94 through 36 games.
“It’d be kind of cool if we can get some calm waters and have a bunch of arms that we can go out and shut another team down and hit the way we’re capable of, but we’re not there yet,” Bloomquist said. “For me, I’m a grinder. I’m going to keep grinding and continuing to try to find the right guys that fit that mold and continue to develop players. That’s what we do.”
The message that Bloomquist has been preaching throughout all the rough waters this season has just been to take things one game at a time. Instead of looking at the big picture of a season, Bloomquist insists on focusing on just the next game. While this approach might have been Bloomquist’s philosophy the whole season, it feels pressing during this stretch as ASU struggles to know who is even available to start the next game.
After the game on Sunday, Bloomquist announced that they would be getting the results back on a test that Burns completed on Friday. If the results are positive, that would be massive news for a team that is facing five games across six days, beginning with a trip to Cal State Fullerton for a two-game set that starts Tuesday.
“We’re gonna bring extra arms on the road for those first few games at Fullerton, and see where we’re at after that,” Bloomquist announced. “We’re gonna have guys who are gonna get opportunities and we’ll have to piece it together. Guys that haven’t pitched a ton are probably gonna get a chance to toe the rubber and eat up some innings.”
Taking the season one game at a time has been one of ASU’s overall philosophies — Bloomquist even repeated it on Sunday. The time for taking each game one game at a time is running out, however, and losing a series at home to Utah could have been the nail in the coffin for ASU’s chance at an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament.
Sitting at four games under .500 with just 20 games left to play, ASU has four Pac-12 series left and a few midweek games sprinkled to try and change the committee’s mind at a potential bid, but sitting at ninth in the Pac-12 now the Sun Devils should be more worried about confirming their place in Scottsdale come Pac-12 Tournament time where just the top nine teams in the conference qualify.
Time is running out for ASU to make their final push, but it appears as if Bloomquist just doesn’t have any pieces left to play. It is up to the Sun Devils to simply start performing.
“We’re just worried about Tuesday at this point,” Bloomquist said. “I’m not worried about PAC 12 championships. Sure, I’d love to have a starting rotation, inked and healthy and ready to go, but we’re not there.”
