The first weekend of college baseball in 2025 has come and gone, and the Sun Devils come out of all the action with a perfect record and a sweep of the Buckeyes. They won on opening night by just one run and finished things off with a bizarre replay delay. They followed that up with a walk-off victory on Saturday to clinch the series victory. Then the Sun Devils swept Ohio State in the most chaotic way.
Arizona State has a quick turnaround, facing Austin Peay this afternoon, but then has a three day rest. The series against Ohio State offered a good first look at this year's team, hoping to take a big step forward in their fourth season under head coach Willie Bloomquist and first in a wide open Big 12.
So what did we learn? There were three major takeaways from this series for the Sun Devils.
The offense ain't going nowhere
Offense hasn't been an issue for Bloomquist's teams, as they were one of the best in scoring runs each of the last two years. The bats didn't cool off one bit in this first series either. They hit seven or more runs in each game and averaged 11 runs per game, though their 17 in Game 3 was a big part of that average.
Still, the Sun Devils remained an explosive hitting team, which is a relief. They returned a ton of star power, and added some new faces, so it was encouraging to see everyone deliver on the hype. Brandon Compton, fresh off his Pac 12 Freshman of the Year award in 2024, leads the team with a .500 batting average and a 1.30% slugging percentage.
Compton also has two homers and seven RBI, putting him right alongside catcher Josiah Cromwick's two home runs and team-leading eight RBI. Cromwick, who transferred from Oregon ahead of the 2024 season, is filling the role that was held by All-Pac 12 player Ryan Campos. To see Cromwick play so well this early on is a major boon for the team.
The other usual suspects have been reliable as well. Kien Vu is just behind Compton with a .400 batting average despite Ohio State largely pitching around him all weekend. Jacob Tobias and Nu'u Contrades both looked sharp, while Isaiah Jackson and Kyle Walker came up big in pivotal moments despite some uneven play.
There's always a concern that a team's offense can dry up over the offseason, even when returning as many stars as Arizona State, but that hasn't been the case in 2025. Granted, they weren't facing the toughest competition in Ohio State, a rebuilding team with a new head coach, but it's still good to see these bats swinging like they were all weekend.
Pitching remains a huge question mark
The biggest question on everyone's minds going into this season was whether or not the pitching would be better. Arizona State added six transfer pitchers, including new closer Will Koger, and also brought in pitching coach Jeremy Accardo from the Brewers.
So far, the verdict has been less than ideal. The Sun Devils gave up eight runs on opening night, reigned it in Saturday with just six, but then allowed 10 on Sunday despite going four frames with a goose egg in the ER column.
The problem has been twofold for Arizona State. Their starting pitchers just haven't lasted long, first of all. Ace Ben Jacobs was done after five in the opener, and transfer Jack Martinez made it four innings on Saturday. Jaden Alba, who made his first career start on Sunday, was their best starter for the series but still only lasted four innings.
All three starters showed promise - Jacobs and Martinez both threw 5+ strikeouts, while Alba had three straight shutout innings - but each player also blew past 75 pitches in no time. Their inability to get through the side more efficiently led to Bloomquist and Accardo relying more heavily on their bullpen all weekend.
Therein lies the second problem. Arizona State has a ton of options in their bullpen, using 13 different relief pitchers over three days, but few of them were reliable in their limited run. Transfer Lucas Kelly was the only one to pitch more than one inning and retain a 0.00 ERA; Koger, Wyatt Halvorson, and Derek Schaefer were all perfect in their one inning pitched.
Other relievers, though, were not so good. Bradyn Barnes gave up four runs in two thirds of an inning on Sunday; Sean Fitzpatrick gave up three runs in one inning pitched; and Jake Neely gave up three runs to just one out on Sunday.
Arizona State did get some promising runs from Josh Butler, Jonah Giblin, and Cole Carlon throughout the weekend. Each reliever showed some real stuff, though it didn't hold up for the duration of their respective stretches on the mound. Still, it's something to build off of moving forward.
All in all, the pitching performance had seemingly been on an upward trend halfway through Sunday's game. They had improved their runs allowed from Friday to Saturday, and pitched four straight shutout innings on Sunday. Then the floodgates opened up, and the flaws of last season's team seemed to come rushing right back.
How this team responds to that moment will speak volumes about how far Arizona State can go in 2025. Their offense is certainly going to be enough to win them some games, but the Sun Devils need to know they can rely on their arms for the occasional nights when their bats don't show up.
Evidence of a strong clutch gene
Last year's team, for all its flaws, turned into a really clutch team down the stretch. They finished the regular season on a six game winning streak and won 17 of their final 22 games.
That clutch gene seems to have carried over into 2025. The Buckeyes put up a really good fight in all three games [side note: Ohio State may be 0-3, but they look to have hit a home run with new head coach Justin Haire] but the Sun Devils managed to pull out the win each time.
In the opener, the bats went silent after a hot start, going scoreless in three innings while Ohio State pulled ahead in the seventh inning. Immediately after that, the offense clicked back on and retook the lead in the bottom of the seventh before closing things out for a narrow win.
The second game was even closer, as the Sun Devils needed to play into the bottom of the ninth trailing by one. The Sun Devils managed to load the bases before Compton drilled a walk-off double to bring both Contrades and Walker home for the win.
They got up big early on Sunday, and looked ready to cruise to the easy sweep, but Ohio State stormed back. After giving up four runs in the seventh and trimming their lead to just three, the Sun Devils responded that same inning with three runs of their own. They later tacked on four more for good measure for a decisive win, but not after some handwringing.
Of course, it's preferable to not need the clutch gene for every game, but the season is still very early. Arizona State will surely round into form as things progress, but it's certainly promising that they've already shown the ability to bounce back within the game and gut out some tough wins.