Sun Devils set with experience and depth for 2025 campaign

(Photo: Samantha Maxwell/WCSN)

Finally, after what always feels like one of the longest and most arduous waits, the winter is finally melting away to give way to baseball season. Arizona State baseball will open the season with four home games at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, starting Friday with a three-game set against Ohio State before hosting Austin Peay on Monday.

However, despite the excitement that always surrounds ASU baseball, the program is arguably in its darkest time, missing the NCAA Tournament for the last three seasons. It is the first time since the program first debuted in the postseason tournament in 1964 under Bobby Winkles that the Sun Devils have missed three consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

Fourth-year head coach Willie Bloomquist is ready to make it to the postseason for the first time as the leader of his alma mater, using his team’s past shortcomings as a reminder.

“Obviously, it’s not where we want to be, and to me, I can always go back to that,” Bloomquist said. “You think one game doesn’t matter? It matters. Just look at the last couple of years; we’ve fallen short by maybe a game or two.”

Every season, Bloomquist is confident in his team, but there has been an overhaul of the coaching staff, adding pitching coach Jeremy Accardo and hitting coach Jason Ellison. Plus, the program completed the construction of the Whiteman Family Performance Center, a.k.a. the pitching lab, giving the pitchers a wealth of new data and information.

Additionally, the Sun Devils, like all the other teams before them, have the opportunity to establish themselves in a new conference as they leave the legendary baseball history of the Pac-12 behind for a new-look Big 12.

Pitching Staff

It is no secret that the main reason the Sun Devils have fallen short these last three seasons is the rough performances of the team’s pitching staff. Over the first three seasons under Bloomquist, ASU as a team has pitched to the tune of a 6.41 ERA.

With the addition of the pitching lab and Accardo along to translate all the new data and information, 2025 should be the best pitching season under Bloomquist. It has to be, or there should be a lot of questions to answer this offseason. However, Bloomquist has more reasons to be confident in this roster than any other.

Leading the way is Bloomquist’s first bonafide ace. Fresh off of a summer with the USA Baseball collegiate national team, left-handed pitcher Ben Jacobs has been confirmed as Friday’s opening night starter against the Buckeyes.

After starting the season in the bullpen last season, Jacobs earned a starting spot midway through the year and never gave it up. Jacobs pitched to the tune of a 4.75 ERA over 66.1 innings but struck out a whopping 102 batters, nearly 40 more then the next-highest strikeout total in the roster.

Jacobs possesses a dangerous four-pitch mix. His fastball sits in the low 90s but gets up to 95 mph, and he has three off-speed pitches, including a low-80s slider, a high-70s curveball and his best off-speed pitch, a changeup that plays off his fastball and generates a lot of whiffs.

“Nerves are still the same, just more excited than nervous,” Jacobs said of his first career opening day start. “I’m ready to go play with these guys.”

Jacobs has had the Friday night role locked since last season ended. The question ASU had to answer was who was going to round out the rotation. On Thursday, Bloomquist confirmed that senior right-handed pitcher Jack Martinez will start on Saturday.

After pitching two seasons at Trinity University, Martinez spent last season in the bullpen for the Louisiana Lafayette Ragin Cajuns, appearing in 22 games but starting just four. In 45 innings, Martinez struck out 50 batters to the tune of a 4.40 ERA.

Martinez’s best weapon is by far his electric fastball that sits in the mid-90s and routinely touches 96 mph. He also has a changeup that really plays nicely off of the high-power fastball.

“A 96-mile-an-hour fastball and a pretty good changeup are a good start,” Bloomquist said when asked why Martinez earned the Saturday start. “He’s got a lot of experience. Has done it before, and we’ve kind of improved on what he already has. He just has a nice repertoire and is able to slow things down a little bit.”

Bloomquist did not confirm who would pitch in that Sunday role this weekend or going forward. But he mentioned that multiple names will be in the running, including sophomore righty Cole Carlon, freshman southpaw Easton Barrett, sophomore righty Rohan Lettow, sophomore righty Josh Butler, and sophomore right-hander Wyatt Halvorson.

The depth of the pitching staff, which has been a weakness over the past three seasons, appears to be a strength of 2025’s team.

“I think just the ability to have arms that can compete and throw strikes and get outs,” Bloomquist said. “We have a lot of them. It’s a good problem to have. I think we have a number of guys that we’re going to rely on in any situation, and [there is] flexibility for some of those guys to just go and get outs whenever they’re asked.”

Position Players

The position player core for Arizona State is its clear strength it always has been. Jacobs might claim he wants to make ASU a ‘pitching school,’ but at its core the Sun Devils have always done one thing really well.

Score runs.

Taking a peek at last year’s Pac-12 baseball statistics will reveal just how dominant the ASU offense was. The Sun Devils were in the top two in the conference in nearly every single offensive statistic, normally finishing just behind Oregon State, a team that finished No. 11 in the country and made it all the way to a super regional.

The Sun Devils hit a league-high .314 batting average and were second in team OPS with a .944. ASU roped the most doubles (143) and the second most home runs (102). Plus, it was bottom-three in the league in strikeouts and was second in walks taken. It was an unbelievable offensive season and was right in line with previous Bloomquist teams.

ASU did lose a couple of key performers from last season. Catcher Ryan Campos and outfielder Nick McLain both departed in the draft, but outside of those two, the lineup remains mostly the same. It’s why this team’s biggest strength is arguably its experience and veteran leadership.

“We got a lot of older guys across the board,” Bloomquist said. “I’m not looking ahead to next year by any means, but if I did look at next year, I will lose pretty much the whole starting nine next year. I’m going to enjoy this year and then try to get the most out of these guys first and deal with that when it comes but we have a lot of experience in age and guys that have been there and done that.”

Despite losing McLain, the strongest position group on the roster still remains the team’s outfield. Consisting of Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Brandon Compton in left, two-time Pac-12 all-defensive team Isaiah Jackson in center, and junior outfielder Kien Vu, who hit .413 last season, in right.

They are three players who should all feature near the top of the ASU lineup, and all three of these guys are close, spending the last three seasons together before becoming roommates this season.

“We are all roommates,” Jackson said. “We get along really well. I think we have the best outfield.”

While the Sun Devil lineup was strong last season, the weakest links were in the middle infield as Bloomquist went extremely young last year, using freshman Jax Ryan and Ethan Mendoza at short and second, respectively. Bloomquist remedied that mistake last year, going from ultra-young to ultra-experienced.

Thursday, Bloomquist confirmed that the starting middle infield would be senior UTSA transfer Matt King at short and redshirt junior Grambling State transfer Kyle Walker at second. The pair has appeared in a combined 261 career games at the D1 level and have started nearly every single one.

Walker represented the U.S. Collegiate National Team during the summer, competing in the International Friendship Series against Chinese Taipei in Cary, N.C. And he is on the 2025 Golden Spikes award preseason watch list.

“We got together off rip, and it was pretty cool,” Walker said. “We love being together. We’re always together. We show up at the field at the same time, and we just got great chemistry up the middle.”

Replacing Campos, ASU’s leader and best player last season, is no easy feat, especially in a position as crucial as that of a catcher. The Sun Devils will rotate players behind the plate, but one player earned the position in the fall. Slugging “15-20” homers, according to Bloomquist, graduate catcher Josiah Cromwick was the MVP of the fall season.

Entering the fall, Cromwick’s defense was not at the level Bloomquist needed, but slugging a season’s worth of homers in the preseason, along with enough hard work behind the plate, earned Cromwick the opening day start.

“When you put 15-or-20 home runs together over the fall and spring, you kind of win the job if you’re playing solid defense, which (Cromwick) has done,” Bloomquist said.

The offense is going to be ASU’s strength once again. The big question entering this season is: are the Sun Devils going to pitch well enough to take advantage of it?

Sammy’s Best Guess at Opening Day Lineup: