ASU baseball: Late-inning pitching has been a backbreaker early on

TEMPE, Ariz. — ASU baseball has had a back-and-forth start to the season. On opening weekend, it put up monster offensive numbers and won the first two games. But the backend of the bullpen gave away the final game of the series.

That has been a major storyline early on this season. ASU’s late-inning pitching has struggled to start the season and has been the reason for two of its three losses.

“That’s something we have to figure out, it’s not piecing together the way we want it to on that backend right now,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “We’re going to have to evaluate who are our arms that can get it done and one thing we’re finding out is who can’t.”

ASU baseball plagued with bullpen issues

The struggles continued in the Sun Devils’ second series against Ohio State. Through the first three games of the four-game series, OSU scored 21 of its 28 runs in the seventh inning or later. Overall, nearly 50% of the runs allowed by ASU this season have come in the seventh inning or later.

“We’re going to have to figure out that backend at some point,” Bloomquist said. “If our starters continue to give us decent starts, five innings or more, we’re going to have to figure out a way to finish games.”

Besides the offensive fireworks, ASU’s starting pitching has been a bright spot early on. The group has allowed 20 earned runs over 29.1 IP. A 6.19 ERA may not seem too good, but when you compare it to the bullpen’s 11.39 ERA it looks a lot better. The bullpen has allowed nearly ten more earned runs (42) than it has innings pitched (33.2) this season.

The struggles throughout the bullpen have been widespread. It hasn’t been one guy here or there; it’s been a collective struggle to head in the right direction. Freshman pitchers Josh Butler and Brok Eddy have been hit around a bit in their first collegiate action. Senior pitcher Hunter Omlid and redshirt junior pitcher Jonah Giblin have struggled early on, and walks have hampered freshman pitcher Bradyn Barnes and closer Cole Carlon.

What’s the solution?

Bloomquist said the guys just need to get better at working ahead and finishing at-bats, that’s how baseball goes.

“If you’re not going to go work ahead and have out pitches late in the game then you’re going to get burned,” Bloomquist said. “Right now, that’s something that we have not been very good at so far.”

ASU’s skipper added the pitchers just need to focus on hitting the target and getting the pitch where it needs to be.

“Right now, we just got to make better pitches,” Bloomquist said. “We have to do a better job of working down in the zone and try to get early contact and stay off the barrel.”

Bright spots in the bullpen

However, there have been a couple of bright spots for the bullpen. Junior pitcher Matt Cornelius has been lights out to begin the season. Cornelius has pitched 3.2 scoreless innings giving up just one hit and has racked up seven strikeouts. Redshirt senior pitcher Matt Tieding came into a bases-loaded situation against Kansas State and got the final out to win the game. Tieding has been shaky to start the season, but he embraced the pressure against KSU with the go-ahead runner at the plate and shut the door on an ASU win.

ASU is now 5-3 through its first two series of the season. The offense has been explosive and can carry a large load and the starting pitching has been good enough. But if the Sun Devils can’t figure out the backend of their bullpen, there will be a lot of anxiety with any lead heading into the later innings.

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