Kien Vu and Nu’u Contrades are two Arizona State baseball players who can imagine something ASU baseball hasn’t done since the 2021 season: play in an NCAA regional.
Getting that far is something neither player has yet to experience, and would also be a first for fourth-year head coach Willie Bloomquist, who is trying to return a program rich in baseball tradition and history to the NCAA college baseball tournament.
ASU didn’t make it out of the Pac-12 tournament the past three seasons and the Sun Devils‘ 32-26 record wasn’t good enough to get an at-large berth to the regionals. But belief exists, as the 2025 season draws near, that the postseason is within reach.
ASU is just over two weeks away from its debut baseball season in the Big 12, opening at home against Ohio State on Feb. 14. The Sun Devils play 14 of their first 16 games of the season at home in Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
Bloomquist, who grew up in old Pac-12 country in Washington state and played college ball at ASU, admits he will miss not being in the conference. But he’s excited about playing in the Big 12, where the Sun Devils hope to contend immediately.
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“We’re always after the high-end talent and those guys that fit our culture and fit our program, so it doesn’t matter what conference we’re playing in,” Bloomquist said. “We’re going after those type of kids.
“It’ll be interesting to see what style of play that this conference throws at us. … Do (teams) play small ball, do they sit back and try and hit homers or what’s the deal? But the good part is, they don’t know us either.”
Vu, a junior from San Diego who became the 133rd All-American in Sun Devil baseball history after posting a Pac-12 best .413 batting average, is confident that this year’s group can play beyond the Big 12 Conference tourney in late May.
“We have a lot of returners, but then a lot of new guys that have bought in quick to what we want to do,” Vu said. “Every guy on our team, I guess except for the Tennessee guys that (transferred), kind of missed out on a playoff opportunity or making a regional. I think everyone here is just hungry for that. I’ve been here for three years, and this is the team that’s going to do it. So it’s exciting. We do have a lot of confidence just with the depth that we have.”
Contrades, on Tuesday after practice, was asked to look out beyond the outfield wall at the Sun Devils’ home ballpark, where the retired numbers are painted. He said it would “mean the world” to get to the postseason and that it’s important to make a deep run this season.
“Just being here, it’s my third year at ASU, and just seeing the community that we have, I just want to give back to them and kind of put something that they can remember us by,” Contrades said.
The Sun Devils have a new pitching coach this season, former major leaguer Jeremy Accardo. He’s taken over a pitching staff that posted a 6.53 team earned run average in 2024, with 273 walks issued as a staff over 58 games.
Accardo makes his home in the Phoenix area and has been a pitching coach in the Mets and Brewers organizations, as well as at Illinois State. At least one ASU pitcher, Louisville transfer Will Koger, said part of the reason he chose the Sun Devils was the opportunity to learn a former big leaguer.
“This is something I’m passionate about, my kids are passionate about, they love these players,” Accardo said.
“He’s been outstanding with these guys, very positive with them,” Bloomquist said of Accardo. “We’ve incorporated some of the analytics of the game with what he’s doing and he’s a lot smarter at that stuff than I am, so I let him do his thing with that. … So just being able to incorporate all of his knowledge with all the tools that we have, you’re really seeing a growth with a lot of these arms that we have from last year to this year.”
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