Just 24 hours after the Sun Devils’ ace danced with a perfect game into the sixth inning, Saturday night’s showing on the hill may have topped it.
Arizona State (11-4) shut down the Gonzaga (2-10) lineup once again behind another strong starting pitching performance en route to a 3-1 victory at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
Senior right-hander Jack Martinez flirted with history, carrying a no-hit bid into the seventh inning. The senior arm struck out 10 Bulldogs in seven scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and two walks.
Jack Martinez gets the final out of the 7th and departs to a standing ovation from the ASU crowd.
— Logan Brown (@LoganABrown) March 9, 2025
Final line:
7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, 110 pitches
Time to stretch. ASU leads 3-0@InfernoIntel pic.twitter.com/GBksEHWe01
“There were a lot of times early in counts that I started with off speed, and that helped me get ahead, especially when you can keep it in the zone,” Martinez said. “And then using the heater, kind of whenever, that keeps hitters off balance, and also being able to use pitches outside of the zone when they know you’re comfortable in the zone, that gets a lot more swinging misses.”
A three-run rally in the sixth inning ended up being all the run support Martinez received on Saturday. Redshirt sophomore left fielder Brandon Compton broke the scoreless tie with a two-run single to give ASU the first and only lead of the evening.
Both starters commanded the opposing lineups from the jump. Martinez struck out five of the first six Bulldogs he faced, carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Martinez used all his pitches – fastball, slider and changeup – to fool the Gonzaga lineup. The Louisiana-Lafayette transfer leaned on the changeup late in counts to keep the Bulldogs off balance.
“Pretty impressive,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “[Martinez] kept them very off balance and was mixing his pitches very well. He had them rolling a little bit, threw the ball outstanding … He was pretty electric tonight.”
Gonzaga sophomore left-hander Miles Gosztola matched Martinez’s brilliance on the mound. The Sun Devils managed just one hit through five innings against Gosztola. He fanned only four ASU batters and pitched to soft contact. Sparky finished the night hitting just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, a trend that has continued during a hot stretch for the pitching staff.
“He took the fight to us, and that was disappointing from a hitter standpoint on our end,” Bloomquist said. “He established the tone. He was pounding the strike zone, threw a lot of strikes, and a lot of fastballs by us. I like to consider us a good fastball-hitting team, but he pretty much dominated us on the fastballing tonight. So hats off to him.”
“Of course, it’s always pretty upsetting when you leave runners on,” junior second baseman Kyle Walker said. “But knowing that your pitchers have your back, it gives you confidence, especially when you’re playing good defense. Just one inning, that’s all it takes, especially when Marty (Martinez) goes seven and we got Schaefer to close out.”
Gosztola finally ran into trouble in the sixth. The Sun Devils loaded the bases quickly with a pair of base hits and a hit-by-pitch. Compton came up with the big hit ASU was searching for: a two-run single to center to break the scoreless knot.
Devils break through!
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) March 9, 2025
B-Comp gets just enough of this one to plate two runs.
2-0, good guys. Bases still loaded with one out ion the sixth as the Bulldogs go to the pen.
📺 ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/DZdFEUxTqr
Arizona State scratched another run across via an RBI groundout by junior third baseman Nu’u Contrades to take a 3-0 lead into the late stages.
Martinez, operating with some run support, surrendered his first hit of the night with two outs in the seventh inning. Gonzaga redshirt sophomore designated hitter Mikey Bell hit a ball into the hole behind Contrades at third base. Contrades couldn’t make the tough throw across the diamond in time, resulting in an infield single to break up Martinez’s no-hitter.
With the pitch count running high for Martinez, Bloomquist walked out to the mound. After some discussion, the ASU skipper walked back to the dugout and opted not to make a change on the mound.
“I knew going out there it was gonna be a fight to get the ball from him,” Bloomquist said. “I didn’t have intentions of taking the ball from him at that point in time. I just wanted to see how he was doing … I had enough conversation with him to know he wanted that next hitter. It’s his game. Let him have it.”
Martinez made the most of Bloomquist’s good faith. He retired the next Gonzaga batter and departed to a standing ovation from the home crowd, as his night came to an end. He now has 35 strikeouts this season; it’s the most by a Sun Devil in their first four starts since Jon Switzer‘s 41 punchouts in 2001.
Sophomores left-hander Cole Carlon and righty Derek Schaefer teamed up in the final two innings to close the door on a potential Bulldogs comeback. After Carlon loaded the bases in the ninth, Schaefer entered as the stopper to earn his second save of the year.
“Not going to lie, in a situation like that, there’s not much to think about,” Schaefer said. “There’s one job. Guys go in there, and they throw strikes, they compete. You get three runs on the board, that’s still enough to win a game, right? So the mentality is to go there and just compete.”
While the group of arms remains white-hot, the Sun Devils understand the strides the offense needs to take before Big 12 conference play begins next week.
“One through nine, coming together and passing it on to each other,” Compton said as to how the offense needed to change. “I feel like we’ve here and there showed flashes of that. But I feel like when we’re really able to put it all together, you’ll see it, and we’ll have really good games moving forward, especially with our pitching staff and how confident they’re doing. I feel like we can be in a really good spot moving into the Big 12, obviously starting tomorrow, and getting that going.”
Bloomquist noted that the usual Sunday starter, sophomore righty Jaden Alba, is still navigating an injury. Instead, sophomore left-hander Rohan Lettow will start the series finale with Gonzaga tomorrow at 1 p.m. MST.
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