This story was originally published on May 20, 2023.
A clutch solo home run by freshman right fielder Nick McLain launched the Arizona State Sun Devils over the edge to win the series over the UCLA Bruins.
ASU (31-22, 16-13 Pac-12) defeated UCLA (27-23-1, 12-16-1 Pac-12) by a final score of 2-1 on senior day, as six seniors were honored before the game. The win over the Bruins marked the 3,000th win in program history.
It was a home run show for the fans at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, as every run came on a blast over the wall. UCLA struck first with a solo blast from junior RF JonJon Vaughans over right field in the top of the second.
The Sun Devils answered quickly as both home runs were crushed. Sophomore left fielder Ryan Campos shot the ball off his bat, traveling 401 feet. McLain’s homer traveled 390 feet to left field as the crowd erupted at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
Despite winning the series against the Bruins, ASU has struggled more offensively than defensively.
“I didn’t think we swung the bats very well at all today,” ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “Personally, I think a little bit of that is we’re trying to put our finger on it…this is a taxing season mentally.”
Sun Devil pitching coach Sam Peraza and the pitching staff performed great. Junior righty Khristian Curtis started on the bump for ASU. Curtis pitched only 2.2 innings with three strikeouts and four hits, which concerned fans from the time spent on the mound.
Curtis has been and is still recovering from an illness, which Peraza confirmed.
“Well, he was sick. Curtis has been sick the last whole entire week,” Peraza said. “Going into today, we figured we could get 50 pitches out of him based on how sick he really was.”
The rest of the game went by like Curtis never left, as the bullpen stood up in the largest moments of the low-scoring affair. Sophomore RHP Jonah Giblin, senior RHP Nolan Lebamoff, junior RHP Blake Pivaroff, and junior RHP Owen Stevenson combined for one hit, zero runs allowed, zero walks allowed, and two strikeouts.
The stat line that stood out to Bloomquist was zero walks.
“We’ve been preaching it all year, and it finally came to fruition today,” Bloomquist said. “That’s how you win low-scoring close games is by not giving up free bases.”
As Stevenson received his sixth win of the year, he explained how he executes well on the mound.
“To attack, I wanted to be ahead of hitter and go get way ahead,” Stevenson said. “You know, I think that puts me in the best position to succeed.”
With four saves in 2023 for Stevenson, Peraza explained his thoughts on Stevenson’s performance and briefly discussed the bullpen usage.
“I mean, I think these guys kind of are starting to know their roles a little bit, so [Stevenson] knows that he’s in there,” Peraza said. “I think one of the things [Stevenson] did really good today is he threw a little more offspeed pitches.”
Having back-to-back one-two-three innings, Bloomquist mentioned they need to get back to being the team they once were earlier in the year.
“We’re not going to change what’s been successful for us all year,” Bloomquist said. “We just got to get better at it. We were an aggressive team, and we need to get back to being aggressive.”
ASU currently stands as the number five team in the Pac-12 standings, the Sun Devils await to see if the Arizona defeats the USC Trojans to improve their seed to the fourth spot. The Sun Devils will participate in the Pac-12 tournament this week in Scottsdale, which begins Tuesday.
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