Pitching powers Sun Devils to Big 12 opening series win

Coming off a 15-8 win on Saturday night, Arizona State looked to set the tone for Big 12 play this season in the rubber game against preseason favorite TCU. Taking the mound for the Sun Devils was former Horned Frog Kole Klecker, who has firmly pitched himself in to a weekend starting role through his first three starts of the season.

Scoreless innings and strong pitch execution were the story of the day as Klecker mowed down his former teammates, tossing 7 shutout innings while allowing just 2 hits, walking 3 and striking out 7 on the way to a 4-0 win to claim the weekend series. Outside of Kole’s start, the play of catcher Brody Briggs had arguably the biggest impact on Sunday’s result.

After the Sun Devils manufactured a run in the bottom of the 2nd, TCU was threatening with runners on the corners and only one out. On a swinging bunt, Briggs came up with an outstanding diving play to tag Jack Bell attempting to score from 3rd. Later on in the 5th inning, Briggs would flash the defense again with a key backpick of Rob Liddington to keep the shutout intact.

Not to say that the offense didn’t have their contributions either. Single runs in the 2nd (sacrifice fly by Briggs to score Dean Toigo) and 3rd innings (RBI single by Dominic Smaldino to score Austen Roellig) had the Devils out in front before Landon Hairston announced his presence with authority.

A 420-foot shot to deep right field, his second in as many games and 8th of the season to take over the team lead gave the Devils a 3-0 lead that would hold until the 8th inning.

Klecker left to a standing ovation and returning the Forks Up to the crowd at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, giving way to Sean Fitzpatrick for the 8th inning. All Sean did was continue the masterpiece that has been his 2026 season, retiring the side in order with two strikeouts, giving him 15 strikeouts of the 25 outs he has recorded so far this season.

With Derek Schaefer warming in the bullpen for a save opportunity, Dean Toigo made the save unnecessary, poking his 8th home run of the season just over the wall in dead center field, tying Hairston atop the team leaderboard in home runs.

Schaefer would still come out for the 9th, retiring the side in order to preserve the 4-0 win. Collectively, Sun Devil pitching struck out 9 batters, gave up just two hits while walking three, only allowed one runner to reach third base and two runners to reach scoring position from the 5th inning on.

Quotables:

"Then, you know, he just gave me some encouragement and [just] extra motivation to close it out there…. To put kind of an exclamation point on it, just get the crowd going and show them who I’m playing for."

Kole Klecker on final mound visit

"Being close to my family, getting to play for a university that’s actually close to my heart, was really cool."

Derek Schaefer on pitching for ASU

"Obviously it’s night and day, but we’re not a finished product. We gotta keep going."

Coach Bloomquist on the season so far

"I thought that that was a chance for us to get better. And it was a wake up call for our guys that you're, you're really close, but you really got a long way to go too. You can't afford to get complacent."

Coach Bloomquist on play since Arlington

Up Next

The Sun Devils will close out this 8-game homestand on Tuesday night against Grand Canyon for a 6:35 first pitch before going on the road to Manhattan, KS to take on the Kansas State Wildcats, who are coming off a series win at Houston this past weekend. The boys will stay on the road for a Monday night single game at UNLV on March 23rd before returning home to face New Mexico State on March 25th.