(Photo: Sam Polgreen/WCSN)
PHOENIX — When Arizona State baseball unveiled a statue of the late head coach Bobby Winkles at Phoenix Municipal on Friday night, the expectation was that the current team would deliver a strong performance to honor the legend. A win wasn’t mandatory, but a spirited performance was needed to pay tribute to a man commonly referred to as the “godfather of Sun Devil Baseball”.
That didn’t happen.
Instead, Utah blanked the Sun Devils 10-0, holding them to three hits — all singles — and handing them only their second shutout defeat of the season. Following the game, head coach Willie Bloomquist and players expressed their disappointment, with the skipper even calling it the “most miserable day of the season”.
These frustrations were apparent early and often through ASU’s play on Saturday. The Sun Devils (16-19, 7-10 Pac-12) exploded for a five-run first inning and never looked back, cruising to an 8-3 victory and evening their three-game weekend series with Utah (22-11, 8-6 Pac-12) at one game apiece.
“(There was) obviously a lot of disappointment,” junior first baseman Jacob Tobias said. “You never want to experience anything like that and have a loss like that. Because at the end of the day, we all know every person in that lineup that went out there, one through nine, isn’t trying to do that. We’re all trying to win and I think they want to win.”
Junior catcher Ryan Campos made his presence felt even before his team went on offense, as he caught two Utes stealing in the top of the first inning. Then, with one out in the bottom of the frame, Campos doubled down the left field line and advanced to third on a fielding error, putting the Sun Devils in prime position to grab the lead almost instantly.
Campos’ early trip to third was an opportunity ASU’s lineup took advantage of. Despite there being two outs on the board, the Sun Devils delivered, with senior infielder Kevin Karstetter, sophomore outfielder Kien Vu and senior third baseman Demera all recording RBI base knocks to drive in four more runs. Before the first inning even concluded, ASU had already bested its hit total on Friday by two, a promising start that undoubtedly generated momentum for the home team.
“(It’s) obviously nice to be on top five to start a game,” Bloomquist said. “I was happy with the way they came out and responded to the game from yesterday. They bounced back very well today and gave us an opportunity to win a series tomorrow.”
While the Sun Devils didn’t score another run until the fourth — a 386-foot solo shot for Tobias that sailed into the Utes’ bullpen in left field, again with two outs — they remained in front thanks to a solid start from senior lefty Connor Markl. The Scottsdale native wasn’t flawless by any means, issuing five walks and allowing three hits in 5.0 innings of work, but he only allowed one run on the night.
That lone run, however, came in a difficult fifth inning that saw Markl struggle with command. After conceding a double to infielder Core Jackson, he allowed the junior to advance and cross the dish on two wild pitches, the second of which left ASU’s starter visibly frustrated. Markl then walked senior outfielder Kai Roberts, but quickly refocused and struck out junior infielder Drake Digiorno to end the inning and his outing.
Senior righty Hunter Omlid entered in the sixth and picked up where Markl left off, keeping Utah’s offense at bay for the rest of the night despite allowing two solo home runs — his only blemishes on the night. In the game’s final four innings, Omlid struck out four and had four baserunners against his name. What’s more important, however, is the fact that ASU only required two arms on Saturday 24 hours removed from using six in Friday’s loss.
“That’s what we aspire to do,” Bloomquist said. “You want to try to go with your best arms, especially when you have the lead, and (we were) able to wrap up a game with just those two, it was great. We were able to preserve (junior righty Ryan) Schiefer, (freshman left-hander Cole) Carlon, (redshirt junior right-hander Jonah) Giblin and (redshirt senior righty Matt Tieding) for tomorrow… So like I said, all-around good job.”
Throughout the season, the Sun Devils have faced several ups and downs, but have still been looking for a statement win to turn the tides on their spring. It appeared that the shot in the arm they so desperately needed came in a 9-8 comeback victory over GCU on April 2, but that was followed by a five-game losing streak that was snapped on Saturday.
It’s possible that ASU’s latest win could be a springboard for the team simply based on the complete performance they displayed against Utah. There have been very few games this year when hitting and pitching have both been firing on all cylinders, but Saturday proved one of those rare outputs that Tobias hopes to see more of down the stretch.
“I could probably name on one hand how many times this year we’ve had a complete win like we had tonight, where we were showing the bats well and pitching well,” Tobias said. “When we do that, it’s really fun to watch and really fun to see, because I feel like we could go out there and compete with anybody if we do that.”
