Despite a complete effort from Arizona State baseball’s pitching staff, ASU made the most out of every free base handed to them. In the series-clinching 9-2 win against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, the Sun Devils drew 10 walks and five errors.
“Hopefully the way the lineup is constructed is that we have speed at the top and the bottom, and if we get speed on and they’re thinking about those guys, maybe they leave a breaking ball up and we deposit it in the seats,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said and hopes his offense is multi-layered throughout the season.
Arizona State sophomore outfielder Brandon Compton trotted down to first base in his first four at-bats via the base on balls. The Buckeye, Arizona native lifted the bat off his shoulder in the eighth inning and delivered a double in the left-center field gap.
“Brandon Compton, I don’t think, saw a pitch all day until the ninth inning or eighth inning there, where he finally got one pitch to hit and hit a double, so staying disciplined to what they what they’re trying to do,” Bloomquist said of his team’s approach at the plate.
Compton advanced from first base three times throughout the game because the Golden Eagles committed errors on a pick-off attempt and in a rundown.
In the third inning, Oral Roberts’ third error of the game gave Compton a free pass from first to third after drawing a one-out walk. Then, with two outs, ASU junior catcher Josiah Cromwick’s sharp ground ball kicked off Golden Eagle junior infielder Matthew Brandt’s glove into left field. Compton came into score from third, giving the Sun Devils a 3-1 lead.
Compton worked a walk in a 3-2 count two innings later. This opened the door for senior infielder Jacob Tobias to hit his first home run since opening day to put Arizona State up 5-2. The 6-foot-1, 225-pound first baseman’s 2-run homer went 430 feet to deep center field.
We love some #TobyTanks
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) February 23, 2025
Two-run shot for the vet. The countdown to the record is now 20.
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“They just leave us cookies, because all they can think about is how they’re going to stop the running game,” Tobias said. “It’s just unbelievable, like lefties righties, everybody is getting in the pitcher’s head, and it’s really cool to see. It’s probably my first time in four years that I’ve really seen us be uber-aggressive on base paths.”
In the ninth frame, redshirt junior infielder Kyle Walker walked. On the first pitch of the next at-bat, he swiped second base. Then, junior infielder Nu’u Contrades sent his second home run of the contest to left-center field. Therefore, another base on balls and stolen base helped extend the Sun Devils’ lead to seven.
“So that’s finding in different ways. Some by the long ball, some by base running, those type of things to staying aggressive are going to be important as we continue to move on so that we’re not one dimensional,” Bloomquist said.
In the three-game series Oral Roberts, Arizona State’s offense created 20 walks and stole 16 bags on 10 Golden Eagles errors.
While ASU opened its season 6-1 through its seven-game home stand, The Sun Devils’ skipper still wants to see more from his squad.
“Happy, not satisfied. I think it’s great to get wins, but we got, we have room to improve. There’s areas we got to get better,” Bloomquist said. “I think we were challenged early on, and to come away with six wins is good, but we know as a team we got to get better.”
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