Carlon’s ten strikeouts power ASU bounce-back over LMU

The hardest hits often set the stage for the strongest comebacks.

The Amegy Bank Series was, in one word, demoralizing. Arizona State is a team that talks openly about Omaha, and a five-game stretch against four SEC opponents offered a glimpse of what that stage demands. Instead, it revealed just how far the Sun Devils still have to go. The challenge was real, the gap was clear, and ASU looked far from ready for that kind of fight.

Still, seasons are not defined in March. If anything, Texas reset the standard. The Sun Devils now have the next few months to prove they belong in Omaha, in the NCAA Tournament, and among the best the Big 12 has to offer.

The climb back begins with LMU. It is not another ranked powerhouse waiting to test them, but that might be exactly what ASU needs. After an 8-0 start slipped to 8-4, this matchup offers a chance to clean up the mistakes that piled up in Texas and rebuild the confidence that carried them through the season’s opening stretch.

With junior left-hander Cole Carlon on the mound, ASU found its footing again. The tall southpaw matched a career high with ten strikeouts over 5.1 gritty innings, allowing just two earned runs while keeping the Sun Devils within reach as the offense slowly thawed from a frigid weekend. The breakthrough came in the seventh. A six-run avalanche cracked the game wide open after ASU (9-4) had been chipping away all afternoon. By the final out, the Sun Devils had piled up 16 hits, including a home run from junior infielder Nu’u Contrades. What began as a steady grind turned into a 12-4 statement win over LMU (5-11). 

Carlon has been building toward a night like this. Last Friday against No. 4 Mississippi State, he had scouts and fans buzzing as they’d just discovered something special. He carried a no-hitter into the fifth and forced the then-unbeaten Bulldogs to sweat before a cramp ended his day early. Even in a shortened outing, the performance flashed what the arm can become.

The abrupt ending frustrated Carlon, a conclusion he hopes to avoid in future starts.

“Unfortunately, last week I just dealt with cramps, tightness, and then did a lot this week to kind of get my body ready,” Carlon said. “Obviously, as the season goes on, I’m getting used to more workloads. I definitely did some things in my routine that I added to make sure that that doesn’t happen again. It worked well today.”

Thursday night was not perfect, which somehow made it more impressive. On a night when he had to grind, Carlon still piled up ten strikeouts. That alone hints at the ceiling. When the lefty does find that near-perfect rhythm, the results could be something special.

LMU did not make it easy. Carlon opened the game working around a leadoff triple. In the second, junior infielder Zach Wadas launched a two-strike pitch into the right field bullpen. The fifth inning stretched long with a walk and two singles, including the game-tying hit that made it 3-3. Even so, Carlon kept answering. Time and again, he escaped trouble with the same solution. Strike three.

The fastball and slider remain his knockout weapons when he needs an out, but his development has shown in the details. Start by start he has leaned more on a curveball and changeup, expanding his mix and keeping hitters guessing deeper into games. The progress showed again on Friday as Carlon pushed to a career high 101 pitches, the first time he has crossed the 100 mark. 

“'(Carlon’s) progressing each time out there,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “He’s mature and getting better and better. He’s a special kid. He wants to keep learning. Just walking past him, he’s like, ‘hey coach, I’ll be sharper next Friday.’ I said, okay, good…when you start mixing in 96, 97, 98 miles an hour with a changeup, a curveball, and then a wipeout slider, it’s like you got something special. When you got the scouts up there drooling, we’re going to be a pretty damn good team with that kid running out there on Friday night.”

At the plate, the final score reads like a slugfest, but the game played out more slowly and deliberately. ASU’s bats sputtered this past week against elite competition, while they cruised against teams like Omaha and St. John’s. A 12-run win over LMU looks impressive, but it’s fully warranted to nit-pick, a reminder that even in a blowout, the offense still has room to sharpen before the bigger tests ahead.

The hits did not come evenly. Eleven of ASU’s 16 knocks arrived in the final three innings while the first five unfolded as a slow burn. Until the lineup caught fire late, a few familiar names carried the load.

Junior outfielder Dominic Longo once again proved to be ASU’s most impactful transfer. Entering the night he led the team in OPS and ranked fifth nationally at 1.268 after a strong showing against SEC competition. He stayed hot against LMU, collecting three hits, including a second-inning RBI single, a seventh-inning RBI double, and a walk. That double marked his eighth extra-base hit of the season in just his tenth start.

“The coaching staff, they’ve been letting us know to see the ball up,” Longo said. “And that’s something that’s been really working for me, especially going to play Oklahoma and then the Globe Life thing with some better pitchers. I think being able to see the ball up and be disciplined on that helps you get the pitches you want. And so far, that’s what I’ve been looking for. I think that’s been the biggest help for me.”

Right behind him was Contrades. The Sun Devils’ co-captain had gone quiet in Texas, managing just two hits across four games, a rare lull for the engine of the offense. That silence did not last.

ASU trailed 2-1 entering the fourth and needed a spark. Graduate outfielder Dean Toigo led off the frame by taking a pitch off the arm. One batter later, Contrades stepped in and yanked a 1-0 fastball deep into right field for a two-run shot, giving ASU the lead. It was Contrades’ team-leading fifth home run of the season. By night’s end, he matched Longo with three hits and a walk.

The final key contribution came from the table setter, sophomore outfielder Landon Hairston. He finished with three hits of his own, including the most important, a leadoff single to start the seventh inning that triggered the floodgates. Six hits and a walk followed in the frame as ASU erupted for six runs and then added two more in the eighth to put the game away.

Even with a commanding win, Bloomquist knows there is still work to be done. The team has a weekend’s worth of fine-tuning ahead, hammering down the details as they confront what it will take to reach the level of competition they aspire to beat. You take a punch, and you have to punch back; that was the main takeaway from this past weekend.

“I think we took away that we’re just this close to being where we want to be,” Contrades said. “We were in every single one of those games; we could have won. We were one hit away from winning a couple of those, just knowing how good we are and what we could be. Obviously, we got punched in the mouth a little bit, but the biggest thing for us is just bouncing back.”