While the rest of the world celebrates Valentine's Day tomorrow, Sun Devil fans will be celebrating the opening pitch of the 2025 baseball season.
Arizona State begins their season at home in the Phoenix Municipal Stadium with a three game series against Ohio State. The Buckeyes are eager to start their season, as it will mark the debut for new head coach Justin Haire. However, the Sun Devils have plenty of reasons to be excited as well.
Welcome to the Big 12
As has been the case for all Arizona State sports, this year marks the baseball program's first year in the Big 12. The Pac 12 has historically been one of the best conferences in baseball, and Arizona State has been a big reason for that, though not in recent years.
Last season, the Pac 12 finished with three teams in the Top 25 - headlined by No. 10 Oregon State and No. 12 Oregon - and those were the only three teams to get invited to the tournament. And for just the second time since 2016, the conference did not have a representative in the College World Series.
If that wasn't bad enough, the Pac 12 also had four teams finish with a losing record, with both Washington State and UCLA failing to reach double digit conference victories. The Sun Devils were firmly in the middle, finishing sixth with a 32-26 record. As a conference, the Pac 12 finished seventh in RPI rankings, behind the likes of the Sun Belt and Big East.
The Big 12, on the other hand, finished third in RPI and sent six teams to the tournament, though none of them reached the CWS; that broke a nine year streak of the conference having at least one team reach the College World Series, and they've often had multiple teams there each season.
That said, much of the Big 12's success over the last decade has been due to Oklahoma and Texas, who are no longer in the conference. So it wasn't much of a surprise to see just two teams make the preseason Top 25 list. That means the Big 12 is wide open, in much the same way that it was for the football team in 2024.
Make-or-break year for Willie Bloomquist
Willie Bloomquist's hiring as the baseball head coach was a much-needed palette cleanser to the Tracy Smith era, largely because Bloomquist is one of many Sun Devil baseball success stories who even played three years for the Diamondbacks.
The honeymoon season is over, though, and Bloomquist is entering his fourth season on the job still looking for his first tournament appearance. That said, his win percentage has improved each year and Bloomquist has sent 14 players to the MLB in the past two years.
Bloomquist shook up his coaching staff this year by moving pitching coach Sam Peraza to recruiting coordinator and replacing him with Jeremy Accardo. The Phoenix native spent over a decade in the MLB and has worked as a pitching coach for both the Mets and Brewers organizations before coming to Tempe.
Peraza has been renowned for his recruiting ability, but the Sun Devil bullpen was consistently an Achilles heel the last few years; half of their losses last year saw the opponent score double digit runs. The hope is that Accardo can rebuild the bullpen and give Arizona State a better pitching rotation to go along with their powerful bats.
Either way, though, Bloomquist enters this year in desperate need of a strong season. He's likely not on the hottest of seats, but Bloomquist needs a marked improvement in 2025 to keep fan faith in his tenure.
Stars old and new
One thing is for sure: the Sun Devils are not short on star power. That was evident when they had three players named to the Golden Spikes watchlist, tied for most players of any team in the country. No other Big 12 team even had two players on the list.
Those three players represent just one of the reasons for optimism in 2025. Brandon Compton and Kyle Walker, the latter of whom transferred in from Grambling State in the offseason, both averaged over .350 at the plate last season. Walker is a defensive stud too, turning 26 double plays in 2024, while Compton finished eighth among all freshmen in home runs last year.
Meanwhile, pitcher Ben Jacobs enters the year as the Sun Devils' expected ace. He finished last year strong, leading the team in wins and posting the nation's 11th best strikeouts per nine innings. Returning alongside Jacobs in the rotation are Sean Fitzpatrick, Cole Carlon, and Wyatt Halvorson.
Arizona State also added six new pitchers via the transfer portal to beef up their bullpen. Lucas Kelly and Colin Linder both came over from Texas A&M in the wake of the Aggies' coaching change, while Will Koger left Louisville after a strong season of relief pitching. Then there's Derek Schaefer, who won the national championship with Tennessee last year, returning to his home state to play for the Sun Devils.
At the plate, the Sun Devils have plenty of heavy hitters to go along with Compton and Walker. Kien Vu led the team in both batting average (.413) and slugging percentage (.793) last year, while catcher Ryan Campos was named an All-Pac 12 player for his efforts, leading the team in both hits and runs.
All in all, the Sun Devils have six players who hit double digit dingers in 2024. Scoring hasn't been the issue in the Bloomquist era, though, and that seems unlikely to change this year. The Sun Devils have taken a small step forward each year under their coach, but they'll need sizable improvements on the mound in order to get back to the tournament.
The quest to return this program to glory begins Friday night against the Buckeyes.