Arizona State took the series agasint Santa Clara despite some hiccups
TEMPE, Ariz. — The opening weekend in college baseball gives programs a chance to evaluate their preparation in the fall for the season ahead. For head coach Willie Bloomquist and Arizona State, the opening series against the 2023 West Coast Conference champions, Santa Clara, left no surprises.
The Sun Devils won two of three games in the series, hitting the ball all over the yard, throwing plenty of strikes, too many of which were hittable. The pitching staff is young, the batting order seems ready, and the entertainment is back at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
There was good, there was bad, and some ugly aspects from the opening weekend on the diamond.
The Good
Arizona State beat Santa Clara twice in the series to give the Sun Devils their first series win of the year. A well-coached program from the ultra-competitive West Coast Conference, Santa Clara got hot at the right time last year, rattling off eight wins in a row to finish the year as conference champions, which granted them a bid to the Fayetteville regional last year.
The opening game of the series featured freshman right-handed pitcher Thomas Burns, who took the mound on opening night. This was the first time since Ike Davis in 2006 that a freshman was the opening night starter. Burns was nothing short of electric, striking out seven and giving up only one run across five innings of work. The pitching staff is young this season, with 15 of the 21 rostered pitchers being underclassmen.
Richard Martinez/ House of Sparky
With such a young pitching staff, the ASU offense will need to pull its weight, especially early on in the year. They did just that this weekend. The Sun Devils had collected 17, 16, and 13 hits in each respective game while scoring over 10 runs each game.
Underclassmen played a large role in the offensive production as well. Sophomore outfielder Isaiah Jackson had 10 RBIs in 14 at-bats. On Sunday, it was freshman shortstop Ethan Mendoza who went five-for-five from the plate. The offense is unlikely to keep this pace, but if the pitching can keep the Devils in games this season, the bats will seem to give ASU chances to claim games, during the regular season at least.
The Bad
In all three games, ASU committed errors, with three hurting the Sun Devils in Saturday night’s contest. All three errors on Saturday led to runs scoring on the play or the subsequent batter.
In particular, infield play will be a focus for ASU this year as their middle infield options from last year split, with Luke Keaschall going to the Minnesota Twins and Luke Hill transferring to Ole Miss.
The Ugly
There were certainly positives that came from the weekend from the pitching staff. Altogether, Sun Devil pitchers only walked nine Broncos across the three games. The simple fact was Santa Clara was hitting balls that were in the zone. This was something Bloomquist and pitching coach Sam Perraza would rather see than free passes on the base paths.
“I’d rather them get hit around the yard than walk the yard,” Bloomquist said. “As long as they keep attacking the zone, we can work with that. We’ll get it fixed.”
ASU pitchers gave up 37 hits, with 17 and 15 coming in Saturday and Sunday’s games, respectively. The pitching staff was ineffective at collecting outs and stopping the bleeding. Damage control from the bullpen, especially, was a concern. In the three games played, the middle frames seemed to be the struggle, with Santa Clara scoring 13 runs in the middle three frames in the three-game series. On six occasions, the Broncos plated three or more runs in a single inning in the series.
Richard Martinez/ House of Sparky
Some of this was due to pitch tipping, according to Bloomquist.
“I think there are things we’re doing, tipping pitches a little bit, that I got wind of,” said Bloomquist. “Especially today, I thought yesterday, but confirmed today that we’re tipping pitches. Those guys are very good at picking stuff, and those are things we’ve got to clean up.”