11 Carlon strikeouts, five home runs power ASU to dominant Friday win over Baylor

Weekends are where it’s at, anyway.

The noise from Wednesday still lingered. A third straight midweek loss, this one a jarring extra-innings stumble against New Mexico State, followed a familiar script, another game stretched to 11 that slipped away late. It left a mark, the kind that can linger or get buried.

Friday offered the answer.

With Baylor arriving just two spots back in the Big 12 standings, the moment carried weight beyond a clean start to the series. Conference play is the priority this time of year, where positioning sharpens and postseason paths take shape, but the opportunity cut both ways. A strong weekend could steady ASU’s footing in the league while giving a needed lift to its NCAA tournament profile against a Bears team that has found its rhythm in conference games.

ASU responded like a team ready to turn the page.

Five home runs cut through a warm Phoenix night, the kind of power surge that changes the tone of a series before it fully settles in. Sophomore infielder Beckett Zavorek led the charge with a career day, launching two of them, while the lineup kept pressure on from the first inning on. It gave more than enough room for junior left-hander Cole Carlon, who took over from there. Carlon struck out 11 for the second straight week, working six innings while allowing just two earned runs on four hits, keeping Baylor off balance from start to finish as ASU rolled to an 11-2 win to open the series.

Carlon’s dominance has not always guaranteed a result. Despite a 3.57 ERA and five starts with double-digit strikeouts, run support has been inconsistent. A career-high 12 strikeouts against Arizona still ended in a loss. Ten more against TCU brought the same outcome.

So the assignment Friday was clear. The bats had to show up early and stay loud.

They did not wait. Graduate outfielder Dean Toigo opened the scoring by unloading on a solo shot, his 16th of the season. A single from sophomore Austin Roellig kept the inning alive, and junior Dominic Smaldino followed with a 452-foot blast that turned momentum into control.

“They can beat you with the long ball and beat you with a thousand cuts, too, if things are going well,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “So again, home runs, I’ve said it before, are a result of just continuous good approach and good swings…We go up there thinking good, solid contact, hit it hard, not far, and trying to stick with our approach. As a result of sticking to the approach, good things happen.”

That approach showed up again in the next wave.

Entering with one home run all season, the 5-foot-10 second baseman Zavorek has stepped into a larger role with the infield stretched thin and junior infielder Nu’u Contrades limited to designated hitter duties while managing a leg injury, and Zavorek has capitalized. 

He ambushed the first pitch of the second inning and sent it out to left for a no-doubt shot that pushed the lead to four. In the eighth, he added to it, grinding through a full count before driving another ball out to left-center for his first career multi-home run game.

Zavorek is now 8 for his last 13 with two homers and two doubles, giving the bottom of the order real weight.

That depth mattered. After Wednesday’s loss, Bloomquist pointed to the need for protection behind Landon Hairston after the sophomore slugger homered twice but was pitched around the rest of the night. Friday offered a different look. Hitters two through five combined for 10 of ASU’s 16 hits, three home runs and seven RBIs. 

“It’s just a matter of finding the right mix and putting them in the right spots,” Bloomquist said. …When Landon is swinging the bat the way he is, they’re not going to pitch to him. We’ve got to put some thump behind him to make them at least think. If they’re going to go ahead and put him on base, they’re there for potentially a big crooked number with the guys behind him.” 

Hairston had just one hit, and it did not matter. The lineup carried the load anyway.

While the lineup dictated the tempo, Carlon made sure it held. His fastball touched 99 mph early, carrying over the velocity spike from a week ago, and his slider kept drawing empty swings. 

“I felt good just coming in the zone with all my pitches tonight, just making sure I was staying mentally with my process every pitch, and just making sure I was going right after them every single time,” Carlon said. “One piece to work on, I guess, just to strike execution a little bit on one of those home runs. But yeah, felt really good tonight.”

One rough outing against Utah, seven earned runs, still stands out, but it has become the exception. In three of his last four starts, he has reached at least 11 strikeouts, and the approach has sharpened with it. Two walks Friday, none the start before, a sign he is attacking more often and trusting the stuff to win. Baylor’s only answer came on two solo home runs, brief sparks that never spread.

Carlon answered both. After the fourth-inning homer, he struck out the next four hitters he faced, cutting off any thought of momentum. In the sixth, a leadoff double brought a flicker of pressure, but he met it head-on, a groundout and two more strikeouts to strand the runner at third. He walked off at 100 pitches, shouting as he left the mound, the energy matching the control he held all night.

From there, the finish was clean. Two days after a late bullpen slip cost ASU a lead, the relief arms flipped the script. Senior left-hander Sean Fitzpatrick handled the seventh and eighth, striking out four of six without allowing a baserunner. Sophomore right-hander Eli Buxton closed the ninth with two more strikeouts, sealing a win that never drifted once ASU took hold.

ASU now turns toward the back stretch of the season, with a Big 12 race that figures to tighten all the way to the finish. The standings may shift by the day, but inside the clubhouse, the approach remains simple.

“We just have to control what we can control,” Bloomquist said. “That’s it. I’m not looking at anybody else’s numbers or stats, and we get in trouble when we do that. So we’re just going to focus on what we have to do, block out any external noise, and stay locked in on our guys…At the end of the day, it’s a stretch run. We all know it. As long as we stay healthy and stay focused on what we have to do, we’ll be just fine.”