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Three takeaways from final of Sun Devils’ three scrimmages

(Photo: Maya Diaz/WCSN)

PHOENIX – With just 19 days before gates open and Sun Devil fans pour into Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Division I baseball’s opening day, Valentine’s Day, February 14, Arizona State baseball wrapped up its three-game weekend intrasquad scrimmage series Sunday afternoon. 

As teams of Maroon and Gray Sun Devils faced off against each other, the action on the field showed just how much of a scrimmage this truly was. Manager Willie Bloomquist and his staff created artificial situations, sometimes innings would start with runners on base and sometimes batters and runners who had gotten out were placed on bases. Sometimes their runs counted, other times they didn’t and some half innings didn’t end when three outs were recorded. 

In the end, the Gray team walked off the field after the top half of the seventh inning with the scoreboard showing them having an 8-5 lead to complete the scrimmage. 

Truly though, the score wasn’t the story of Sunday’s action, instead, it was the specific game situations that Arizona State practiced and how individual Sun Devils looked as the team prepares for Ohio State to visit the Valley of the Sun in the middle of February. 

Here are three takeaways.

The prevalence of small ball

To start the top half of the second inning Maroon junior center fielder Isaiah Jackson successfully scored an artificial runner from third base and advanced an artificial runner to second base on a sacrifice bunt play. 

After Gray freshman first baseman Landon Hairston tagged Jackson out he and the two players who started as runners on the corners went back into the dugout. The run didn’t count and the second inning truly began with sophomore shortstop Jax Ryan, who was due up to start the inning. 

This was the first of multiple artificially crafted sacrifice bunt scenarios that took place throughout the game, always at the start of a pitcher’s second inning of work. 

The success of the bunting plays was a mixed bag. Gray second baseman Kyle Walker started the bottom half of the second inning with a successful sacrifice like Jackson’s, scoring the runner from third and advancing the other runner to second. On the flip side, Maroon junior third baseman Nu’u Contrades and Maroon sophomore catcher Brody Briggs couldn’t lay down successful sacrifices in the fourth and sixth innings respectively. 

The second part of the small ball recipe was aggressiveness on the basepaths. The Sun Devils weren’t afraid to steal bases and put on the hit-and-run multiple times. Players ranging from Briggs to Gray freshman third baseman Gian De Castro took off at different points during the scrimmage. 

Apart from some rough sequences late in the game where delayed double steals didn’t work out and a play in the sixth inning where Ryan was too aggressive on a passed ball, running seemed to benefit the Sun Devils overall. To what extent, if at all, Bloomquist utilizes these small ball tactics will be something to watch at the start of the season.  

Nu’u Contrades looks ready to go

One player in particular who was aggressive on the basepaths was Nu’u Contrades.  

Contrades tagged up from first base on a fly ball to deep left field in the first inning, sliding into second base safely. In the second inning, he stole second base. Contrades moving this good is a great sign for the Sun Devils as he missed nearly all of the 2024 season with a back injury after an impactful true freshman year in 2023. 

That season Contradres slashed .309/.341/.484 while starting 53 games in the Arizona State infield. He’ll need to not only get back to that level this season but take a step forward after hitters like Ryan Campos and Nick McLain got selected in the 2024 MLB draft. 

Contrades also showed aggressiveness at the plate. He sent the first pitch of the game back up the middle sharply into center field. He would go on to single twice more, ending his day 3-4. 

Newcomer successes 

There were a few new Sun Devils that also had their impact felt. 

Walker, a transfer from Grambling State who hit .401 with 11 home runs in 45 games last season, hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning to left-center field, the ball landing in between the first and second retired numbers signs. His double-play partner on the Gray team, senior shortstop Matt King, a transfer from UTSA who posted a .336 average last season, pulled back his sacrifice bunt attempt in the fourth inning and smacked a ball into the right-center field gap for a double. 

The extra-base hits were encouraging signs for Arizona State’s up-the-middle production this year as that has been an area that the Sun Devils have struggled in recent years.  

On the pitching side, there were also a few new Sun Devils that stood out. Tennessee transfer and sophomore right-hander Derek Schaefer gave up two earned runs in two innings of work but also struck out three batters, utilizing his fastball and slider well. 

Schaefer was relieved by southpaw freshman Max Arlich and freshman right-handers Jake Neely and Chase Wagner. The three combined for five innings with no earned runs given up. Arlich and Neely each struck out a batter in their two innings of work and Wagner shut down the Maroon offense after allowing a single to Contrades in the last frame of the game. 

On the opposing side, freshman right-hander Eli Buxton was the standout. He allowed two earned runs in two innings of work but struck out three of the four batters he faced in the third inning, including an impressive sword of Landon Hairston with his splitter. 

All in all, only so much can be learned from these scrimmages, but there were signs of impressive young pitching that can be developed, an infield that looks like it could return to being an offensive threat and signs that this could potentially be an aggressive team on the basepaths. There were many small victories in the final of the three weekend scrimmages for Willie Bloomquist and his staff to analyze.

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