ASU erupts for 29 runs to sweep LMU, most in two decades

Some teams respond to adversity with caution. Others, like Arizona State on Sunday against LMU, respond with total domination.

ASU entered Sunday already holding the series win and already ahead 21-5 on the scoreboard for the weekend, a strong response for a team trying to reset after a four-game losing streak. Still, as graduate outfielder Dean Toigo said Saturday, this group is not satisfied. There is always another adjustment to make, another at bat to clean up, another run to score.

That mindset showed up immediately on a hot afternoon in Phoenix. Nearly every ball put in play found grass, split a gap, or carried over a fence in left, right, or center. Line drives kept coming, runners kept circling, and LMU never found a way to slow it down.

Sunday turned into an offensive avalanche. ASU piled up 23 hits, ten for extra bases, and scored a season high 29 runs as the lineup took turns racing around the bases. The damage came early, with 17 runs in the first four innings to put the game out of reach before the middle frames. Senior right-hander Kole Klecker, making his first start in the Sunday role, gave the Sun Devils four solid innings and allowed three runs, plenty of support on a day the offense did the heavy lifting. By the final out, the outcome felt certain. ASU completed the sweep with a 29-3 rout, scoring the most runs in a single game for the program in 21 years.

There was no patience in the offensive attack this time. No slow build like the first two games. ASU came out firing from the first pitch, jumping ahead with a five run first inning. Sophomore infielder Beckett Zavorek and Toigo went back-to-back, with Toigo launching a towering 451-foot shot to deep right field for his fifth of the season and Zavorek’s first of his career. 

“We just go out and play,” Bloomquist said. “There’s been plenty of times where we’re trying to scratch runs across, and this is one of those days where we had a pretty good approach going into it and stuck with it, not suggesting we’re going to put up 29 runs every day, but good things happen when you stick with an approach.”  

Nu’u Contrades added an RBI double earlier in the inning, but while sliding into second appeared to pull something and had to leave the game. Afterward, head coach Willie Bloomquist said the Sun Devils are “down a big horse for a little bit,” a tough blow for a hitter sitting just shy of a .400 average.

The injury clearly weighed on Bloomquist after the game, even as the scoreboard told the story of one of the most productive days his team has had all season.

ASU never let the energy drop. The third inning turned chaotic, with two hit batters, an error and a wild pitch helping bring home four runs, but the fourth inning is what broke the game open for good. A string of hits started the rally, including an RBI single from sophomore catcher Coen Niclai, before Landon Hairston stepped in with the bases loaded. 

One night after launching a 461-foot home run, the sophomore outfielder drove a 3-2 pitch the opposite way and into the left field bullpen for a grand slam, his second of the season and fifth homer overall, already a career high despite playing far fewer games than last year.

Junior outfielder Dominic Longo kept the surge going. After homering earlier this season against No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 4 Mississippi State, and No. 22 Texas A&M, and going deep again Saturday, the junior outfielder stayed hot Sunday with another drive to left for a two-run homer, his team-leading sixth of the season and his sixth straight game with an extra-base hit. 

The scoring only got more ridiculous after the fourth. From the fifth through the eighth innings, ASU added another 12 runs, stacking together quality at-bats long after the outcome had been decided and turning the afternoon into a constant trip around the bases.

“That’s just baseball, it’s not going to be scoring 30 runs,” Zavorek said. “So I wouldn’t say get used to seeing us score 30 runs, because it’s pretty tough to do. I think we could definitely hit, but we’re just trying to go up there and put up good at-bats every time.”

Everyone got involved. All 16 players who entered on offense recorded an RBI except one, sophomore infielder Austin Roellig, but even he led the team in hits with four, doubling twice and scoring five times. 

Junior outfielder Sam Myers, still searching for consistency after opening the season as the starting center fielder but fighting for at-bats with Longo swinging a hot bat, got the start in left and delivered three hits and three RBIs.

Niclai also made the most of his opportunity. The Oregon transfer has mostly worked in spot starts behind Brody Briggs, but Sunday turned into a breakout. Niclai drove in five runs, including a 426-foot home run to open the fifth, added a two-run single and a pair of sacrifice flies, and threw out a runner in the first inning to cap one of his most complete games of the year.

To put the final exclamation point on a day that already felt unreal, ASU’s 29th run came on one more loud swing. Junior infielder Dominic Smaldino drove a grand slam the opposite way, just clearing the wall for the Sun Devils’ sixth home run of the day and their 10th extra base hit overall. The total marked the most runs ASU has scored in a game since putting up 30 against Western Illinois in 2005.

On the mound, Klecker gave four innings and was touched for six hits and three earned runs, but settled in during the third and fourth innings to go scoreless and show progress. Bloomquist reaffirmed after the game that the current rotation will remain at least through next weekend against TCU, with Klecker now in line for a little revenge against his former team.

While the day was slightly dampened by the news of Contrades’ injury, it still concluded a much-needed sweep over LMU for a team looking to regain momentum after a tough stretch against SEC competition.

“There are still a lot of things that we have to work on, of course, but I’m happy with the way we responded and just got back to winning,” Bloomquist said. “That was big for us to be able to come away this weekend with three wins. And kind of reset things here as we get ready to start the next kind of stretch of our season, which obviously starts on Tuesday against Arizona, and then we have conference starting. Chapter one is over and behind us.”