(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Following a dreadful midweek series sweep at the hands of Cal State Fullerton, the Arizona State baseball team (14-16, 6-4 Pac-12) knew that excuses for their play were quickly losing their credibility and that execution on the field was the simple solution to their up-and-down play this season.
Friday night at Phoenix Municipal Stadium was a good response for a young team still trying to prove itself, as they defeated the USC Trojans (14-12, 3-7 Pac-12) 5-1 in the first game of a three-game series.
“We got a lot of season left to go, and I think what we’ve proven in the 30 baseball games we’ve played up until this point is that we can play with anyone in the country, and beat them,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “It was good to see guys coming out and executing in all facets of the game tonight.”
With the ASU pitching staff dealing with injuries to the likes of Boyd Vander Kooi and inconsistencies from presumed Friday night starter Spencer Van Scoyoc, a performance like the one Alec Marsh turned in to open the series cannot be overstated.
The sophomore has seen time as a midweek starter, short reliever, and weekend starter this season, but in his first Friday night start of the year he dominated through 8.1 innings, allowing only three hits and one run to go along with seven strikeouts.
“[He was] down in the zone, using the sinker, and he was throwing strikes,” Smith said. “He wanted the ball and wanted a shutout, and with where we are with our pitching staff right now, in terms of mindset, we’re not going to deny the guy that opportunity, because that’s what we’re trying to create is guys who want the baseball.”
Despite the dominant performance in the final box score, the game could have looked very different had the top of the second inning gone differently for ASU.
A single, double and hit batter leading off the frame loaded the bases for USC and put Marsh on the ropes early, but the Milwaukee native buckled down to work himself out of the jam.
Marsh retired Trojan right fielder Jamal O’Guinn on strikes before getting Blake Sabol to bounce into a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the frame unscathed.
“I kind of thought back in my mind, ‘This is going to be the game right here if I can get out of this’, and that’s what I did and I just kept going,” Marsh said. “It was pretty much game over from there.”
Marsh, en route to his seven-strikeout performance, attributed his success tonight to the slider that he is attempting to add to his repertoire.
“It’s still a work in progress, but it has good action right now, I just have to keep working on it to get it a little higher [velocity]-wise,” Marsh said. “It’s becoming a factor because it looks different than my curveball, so I got two breaking ball pitches and then I have my changeup which goes the other way.”
After escaping the top of the second with no damage, the Sun Devil offense slowly built a lead against USC by manufacturing runs in different ways, including a Hunter Bishop sacrifice bunt, a Gage Canning solo home run and groundout, followed up by Spencer Torkelson and Taylor Lane singles.
Connor Higgins was brought on in the ninth to relieve Marsh and his 117 pitches, though Higgins was pulled after just five pitches of his own, four of which were out of the zone.
Smith brought on Jake Godfrey, who inherited a 1-0 count against O’Guinn courtesy of Higgins. After walking O’Guinn to force in the Trojans’ first run, the senior induced a pair of fly balls to end the ballgame.
Coming off the two late-inning losses to Cal State Fullerton earlier in the week, the team knows that the time for excuses is over and the play on the field will dictate where they go the rest of the season.
“It’s time to turn it around, it’s time to start focusing on the little things, stuff that we haven’t done well in the past maybe because we’re young or whatever it might be,” Marsh said. “We have so much talent on this team, that if we do the little things we’re going to win, a lot.”
