Potential final addition
It took just a little over a week, but Willie Bloomquist appears to have found a new pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for the Sun Devils. Sam Peraza is expected to fill that role after spending the previous five seasons at San Diego State.
Kendall Rogers from D1Baseball.com was first to report this development on Saturday night.
SCOOP: @ASU_Baseball will hire @AztecBaseball’s Sam Peraza as its pitching coach, sources tell @d1baseball. Peraza spent the last five seasons with the #Aztecs and was the associate head coach the last two seasons. Willie Bloomquist’s full-time staff is complete. #ForksUp
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) July 10, 2021
As an Aztec, Peraza spent his first three seasons solely handling the hurlers and added the “associate head coach” title for the last two years.
Under his leadership, the SDSU pitching staff finished top-two in team ERA in the Mountain West Conference in four of the five years. He also helped the Aztecs win back-to-back conference tournament titles in 2017 and 2018.
Peraza has been coaching college athletes since 2007, making him the most experienced staff member in that department. Throughout his career, he has made stops at Eastern Oklahoma State College, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge and Florida International.
This anticipated hire will now round out the coaching staff for Willie Bloomquist’s first year. It comes at a time where, within the past eight days alone, there has been a lot of movement within the Arizona State baseball program.
First, pitching coach and recruiting coordinator Jason Kelly parted ways with the Sun Devils before joining the LSU Tigers in the pitching coach role. Following Kelly’s departure, Bloomquist added former Sun Devil Travis Buck and hitting coach Bill Mueller to the staff.
Peraza is set to take over a pitching room stocked with talent, with the expectation that everyone is healthy and on the roster.