Contrades goes deep in return, leads ASU to 10-4 victory

Head coach Willie Bloomquist couldn’t hide the grin in the postgame, the kind that comes when a player reminds you just how dangerous he can be. 

“It’s nice to have him back,” Bloomquist said. 

When junior infielder Nu’u Contrades, owner of a 1.159 OPS entering Wednesday, went down with a leg injury on March 8th against LMU, the concern was immediate. ASU was staring down the start of Big 12 play, with ranked matchups against TCU and West Virginia, plus a trip to Manhattan to face Kansas State. The timing could not have been worse.

Even a 29-run outburst that day did little to lift Bloomquist’s mood. Still, ASU never blinked. The next-man-up mindset did more than hold the line; it sharpened the identity of a group willing to absorb a blow and keep pushing. The Sun Devils took two of three from then No. 17 TCU and followed it by winning a series in Manhattan against a Kansas State team that had not dropped one at home since March 2024.

All without Contrades.

So when Contrades dug in during the first inning with two on, it felt like a release. One pitch. One swing. A three-run blast over the left field wall. Just like that, he was back in the center of it. Contrades finished with three hits as ASU (19-6, 4-2 Big 12) ignited for eight runs in the first inning and leaned on 15 strikeouts from six pitchers to cruise to a 10-4 win over New Mexico State (11-13), marking the team’s second midweek victory of the week.

What ASU demonstrated without Contrades was a team capable of standing toe-to-toe with the Big 12’s elite, including preseason favorite TCU and a Kansas State squad that entered the weekend second in conference runs. Wednesday’s game served as a vivid reminder of the spark he provides; the ceiling of this offense soars when he’s in the lineup.

“This team’s full of studs,” Contrades said. “Top to bottom, this is probably the best lineup and staff I’ve seen. It’s been awesome. Obviously, it sucks not being able to play, but just knowing these guys are awesome, they’re going to step up.”

The mantra of the last two seasons has been clear: Sun Devil offense is contagious. One hitter barrels a ball, and the lineup catches fire. One strikeout, and momentum can stall. That principle unfolded in real time on Wednesday. ASU reached base in its first three plate appearances, and after sophomore infielder Austin Roellig was hit by a pitch, graduate outfielder Dean Toigo stepped up with the bases loaded.

The last time Toigo faced a bases-loaded scenario, he launched an opposite-field grand slam against Kansas State, igniting an 18-run eruption. Wednesday, he lined a double down the left-field line, driving in two and setting the perfect stage for Contrades’ return.

Any doubt about ASU’s co-captain’s eagerness, after a career repeatedly interrupted by injury, including just five games in 2024 and 47 in 2025, vanished with his first swing. An 0-0 offspeed pitch high in the zone, and Contrades crushed it over the left-field fence. He skipped out of the box, delivered an emphatic bat toss, and made a statement: he was back.

“It felt awesome,” Contrades said of being back. “First of all, all glory and honor and praise go to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. He’s brought me through it all. With all the injuries I’ve been through, he’s been my rock and the one I fall back on through the ups and downs.”

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Jaden Davis didn’t record an out before New Mexico State turned to its bullpen, but it mattered little. Four more hits followed, capped by junior infielder PJ Moutzouridis’ triple, completing an eight-run first inning.

Even so, ASU’s bats can flare and fade with equal intensity. After the explosive start, the Sun Devils went scoreless over the next four innings, putting the spotlight on a deep midweek pitching staff tasked with shutting the door and preventing a repeat of the 12-11 scare against UNLV, when a 12-0 lead nearly slipped away.

This time, ASU’s arms held firm. Junior right-hander Colin Linder battled through five base runners and an error over three innings. He struck out a career-high six while allowing just a solo home run.

Junior right-handed pitcher Josh Butler and freshman Austin Musso handled the middle innings, with Butler striking out five to match a career high. That rhythm was occasionally disrupted by shaky defense. Musso, along with Linder earlier, ran into trouble, though only two of ASU’s four runs allowed were earned. Linder had a miscue behind the mound, and later Musso fielded a swinging bunt and threw it away, allowing a run to score.

Bloomquist pointed to “mental fatigue” after five games in six days as the cause of ASU’s three-error night, framing the miscues as part of the grind rather than a lapse in preparation.

“Part of this little stretch is that we’re on here with a lot of games in a short amount of days, and we haven’t been practicing much. We’re just playing games,” Bloomquist said. “At times, mental fatigue is happening a little bit, which leads to some uncharacteristically poor defensive plays…That was kind of the message after the game, just to keep grinding mentally more so than physically.”

Graduate right-hander Colby Guy, along with sophomores Finn Edwards and Eli Buxton, closed out the final three innings. The trio combined for four strikeouts and did not allow a base runner, making sure there was no repeat of Monday’s late-game drama.

“Good bounce back by a couple of guys,” Bloomquist said. “Eli Buxton, after a tough outing on Monday, came back and had a great ninth inning there and allowed us to give our back-end bullpen a little bit of a rest. That was big. Finn Edwards threw great. Colby Guy continues to establish himself as one of our main guys out of that pen…Josh Butler threw great, and Linder got us off to a decent start.”

The cherry on top of ASU’s sixth midweek win, against just one loss, came in the seventh inning. Sophomore outfielder Landon Hairston crushed his 11th home run of the season, tying the team lead and marking his eighth in the last 12 games. Now hitting .458, Hairston earned Baseball America national team-of-the-week honors for a 9-for-18 stretch that included two home runs, one a go-ahead blast Friday against Kansas State.

He will need to keep the pedal down as ASU hosts No. 17 West Virginia this weekend. With only the Sun Devils and Mountaineers ranked by D1Baseball in the conference, a series win could put ASU in firm control of the Big 12 race.

“We’re going to have to come ready to play and play really good baseball because it’s going to be a good weekend,” Bloomquist said. “Just looking a little bit at their pitching staff, they’ve got guys who can really chuck it and are really good on the mound. They play lockdown defense, they can swing it, so they’re a complete package. They’re real. We’re going to have to come with our A game ready to play, but it’ll be a great test for us.”