Sun Devils survive ninth inning threat to avoid the sweep

(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)

PHOENIX — In the top of the ninth inning, Arizona State baseball was fighting for survival against Minnesota. The Sun Devils had the lead, but the Golden Gophers were on the brink of flipping the script of the game.

Two innings prior, Minnesota put up four runs to put itself within striking distance and in the ninth, with one run already scored and only one out, it had the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second base.

The situation forced Willie Bloomquist to go to the bullpen for the fifth time Sunday afternoon and bring sophomore right-hander Derek Schaefer in a situation where a strikeout was needed. He got the first batter he faced, senior third baseman Jack Larson, to swing through an off-speed pitch, putting the Sun Devils one out away from victory.

Schaefer’s next opponent was freshman second baseman Jameson Martin, who at that point was 1-3 on the day with a home run. After battling for six pitches, Schaefer challenged Martin with a pitch he couldn’t help but swing at with the count full. Martin tried to unload on the ball but hit nothing but the air with strike three landing firmly in the mitt of graduate catcher Josiah Cromwick.

Schaefer had accomplished what he needed to do to secure the 8-7 victory for Arizona State (8-4) and spoil Minnesota’s (4-5) attempt to sweep the weekend series at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

“Right there, contact scores a run,” Bloomquist said. “So we’re like, ‘who’s our best punch-out guy? Right now, it’s (Schaefer).’ So we went and got him and he picked us up big time. That showed me a lot of something with him. He came in eager to get the ball and he threw with conviction, did a great job.”

The pitcher that Schaefer replaced was fellow sophomore righty Josh Butler. Butler came into the game in the seventh inning in a similar situation. He was tasked with stopping the bleeding after the Golden Gophers had knocked four balls over the fences for home runs with only one out at that point.

Sophomore shortstop Jack Spanier and senior center fielder Parker Knoll started the seventh inning off with back-to-back shots off of sophomore right-hander Rohan Lettow, who closed out the sixth inning with a strikeout. That was the only out Lettow would get against Minnesota as Bloomquist pulled him for junior left-hander Sean Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick managed to record an out but also allowed home runs to junior left fielder Drew Berkland and sophomore designated hitter Charlie Sutherland. This prompted Bloomquist to go to the bullpen again, this time bringing in Butler, who was able to get out of the inning with a double play and keep the ball in the yard over the course of his two innings of work.

“My stuff’s kind of build to keep the ball in the park, keep the ball in the infield,” Butler said. “… I try to come in and be the same guy every day.”

Butler’s stuff never failed, even in the ninth inning when he allowed a run to score and found himself taken out of the game with two runners in scoring position it wasn’t because of anything he necessarily did wrong. He was still inducing weak contact and contact on the ground. In the ninth, Butler allowed a single up the middle before getting a fielder’s choice. A ground ball down the first base line that senior infielder Jacob Tobias couldn’t haul in is what ended his day.

“We didn’t make a play there for (Butler) and it kind of put us in a bind,” Bloomquist said. “I would have stuck with Josh probably, just because he was throwing the ball great and getting ground balls.”

In the end, the Sun Devils were able to escape with the win, thanks in large part to Arizona State’s big sixth inning where it scored five runs.

Minnesota right-handed junior reliever Caden Capomaccio started his second inning of work by hitting Cromwick with a pitch and allowing a double to junior center fielder Isaiah Jackson. Jackson’s double would’ve been a tailor-made double play if the infield was shifted normally, but Jackson was able to beat the shift that expected him to pull the ball and hustled into second base.

A pair of singles from bottom of the order bats — redshirt junior second baseman Kyle Walker and freshman designated hitter Beckett Zavorek — scored Cromwick, Jackson and Walker himself. After a walk from senior shortstop Matt King, redshirt sophomore Brandon Compton doubled down the left field line, scoring Zavorek and King to make it a five-run inning for ASU.

The inning ended up providing just enough insurance for the Sun Devils to come away with the win, but the inning was an outlier in the game. It was the only inning where the Sun Devils were able to bring more than one run across the plate.

“We’re just trying to string a couple more of those innings together in a game and blow a team out,” Zavorek said. “We’ll get going, we’ll be good.”

In only his third start of his freshman season, Zavorek stood out offensively. Not only did he hit a two-RBI single in the sixth inning, but he also stole two bases on the day and caused havoc with his speed.

In the fifth inning, Zavorek reached first on a perfectly placed bunt to the left side. Zavorek’s speed not only awarded him an infield single, but it let him run around the head of senior left-handed starter Justin Thorsteinson. Thorsteinson attempted to pick off Zavorek three times before he stole second base. Once the Sun Devils speedster was one second, Thorsteinson attempted to pick him off three more times.

On the third attempt, Thorsteinson made a fatal mistake. His throw was too far to the right side of second base for Martin to catch the ball. Instead, the ball tipped off his glove and bounded into shallow right field, allowing Zavorek to speed around third and slide safely into home, giving the Sun Devils a 3-1 lead at the time.

“I think speed’s huge,” Zavorek said. “We saw it today, a lot of bags stolen today and throughout the year and I think that just puts a lot of pressure on the defense, and more often than not if you’re putting pressure on the defense they’re going to have to make a play and I think speed helps make that hard on them.”

Arizona State’s big sixth inning, Zavorek bringing himself around to score in the fifth, a solo home run to left field from Cromwick in the fourth and a sacrifice fly from Tobias in the first inning gave Arizona State it’s eight runs that won it the ballgame thanks to Schaefer’s cold blooded performance in the ninth inning.

The sweep-avoiding win gave a preview of the type of wins the Sun Devils might be able to string together as the season continues. This current iteration of Arizona State has been touted by some as the most talented roster Bloomquist has had in his time at the helm. The Sun Devils are a blue blood of college baseball; there are expectations surrounding the team and the players know they need to continue to win.

“Look at this room” Schaefer said, pointing to the College World Series trophies and banners that adorn ASU’s media room. “(Winning) is the expectation, it’s nothing less and we have a ton of talent so the expectation of winning is always going to be there. I think we definitely have the guys to do it.”