A grand slam from their eighth hitter, three runs scored on a ball that barely left the infield and 21 free bases. Just how coach Willie Bloomquist and the Arizona State Sun Devils drew it up going into Friday’s 10-9 win against Cal Berkley.
What had been a back-and-forth game before ASU took a comfortable lead in the seventh nearly turned to disaster as the Golden Bears had the winning run on second in the top of the ninth.
ASU turned to junior pitcher Ryan Schiefer to close out the game after freshman Wyatt Halvorson gave up a walk and double to start the inning. But as soon as Schiefer got the ball he gave up a home run and things got closer.
The righty immediately got two quick outs to follow up but got in trouble again allowing another run on three more hits before finally closing it out and securing the win.
“Two-strike pitching as a whole today just wasn’t great,” junior catcher Ryan Campos said.
He mentioned how valuable it is for the young pitching staff to get experience in high-leverage spots but emphasized that it would only get harder moving forward.
It’s the team’s third win in a row, the first time they have done so this season. ASU had taken game one of the series 14-8 on Thursday after a 10-9 win at UNLV ended a four-game skid which included a sweep at Washington State.
“This is a really tough squad of dudes,” senior left fielder Harris Williams said. “We weren’t lacking any grit or resilience. We were just at times lacking one more base hit or one more pitch.”
It looked like it could be a pitching duel in the early innings as ASU took a 2-1 lead into the fourth. After a rocky first inning, Jacobs was able to settle in. That was until the fourth inning when he gave up a two-run shot to Golden Bears freshman left fielder Seth Gwynn which put Cal up 3-2 going to the fifth.
After that, chaos ensued for the rest of the game. Arizona State had three straight walks to start the bottom of the fifth but looked like they might lose out on another opportunity when freshman second baseman Ethan Mendoza and sophomore center fielder Isaiah Jackson both struck out.
Then came Mario Demera. The senior transfer from San Francisco had been getting playing time due to injuries at third base and is now taking full advantage.
Demera who hadn’t been getting all of the results he wanted was able to connect when it mattered and sent his first home run of the year over the fence for a go-ahead grand slam.
A clean sixth led to Jackson coming up with a runner on first in the seventh inning.
All hell broke loose for the Devils.
Jackson laid down a bunt to third and after a throwing error to first and a second fielding error, Mendoza was able to score all the way from first when the ball barely made it past the dugout.
Campos came up later in the inning and cleared the bases with a double and extended the maroon and gold’s lead to five going into the eighth up 10-5.
On a night that saw nothing but relievers, junior catcher Ryan Campos was a calming veteran presence, navigating through chaos all night.
With the erratic start from Jacobs and other jams that ASU pitching got themselves into, Campos had a lot on his plate and even helped out with the arm, throwing out two runners attempting to steal.
“You certainly don’t want to go out and give up runs, you’re not trying to,” Bloomquist said about the struggles in the first inning and as a whole from ASU pitching this year. “You don’t want to climb out of holes every day if you don’t have to.”
The Sun Devils have turned to many different faces on the roster to supplement a litany of injured players. Bloomquist mentioned how he’s going to need everyone going forward in order to get where they know they can go.
For the immediate future, the Sun Devils will turn to senior Connor Markl on Saturday to secure the sweep against Cal and Bloomquist said they’ll figure it out from there.
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