Arizona State Sweeps Stanford, Win 3rd PAC-12 Series

The Arizona State Sun Devil baseball team just keeps on rolling.

After a late rally on Friday night to win the series opener 7-6 in the bottom of the 9th, ASU went on to beat Stanford Saturday and Sunday to sweep the Cardinal at Phoenix Municipal Stadium over the weekend.

Friday night was definitely the Sun Devils’ toughest game of the series. Seth Martinez got the start against Stanford’s Brett Hanewich. Martinez went just 4 1/3 innings, giving up four runs, one earned, on five hits and struck out four.

Darin Gillies came in on relief and allowed two more runs to score during his inning of work. The Sun Devils meanwhile were able to get to Hanewich and knocked in four runs during his five innings of work.

The game came down to the bottom of the 9th with the Devils trailing 6-4. The Devils were able to load the bases for Joey Bielek who pulled ASU to within one an RBI fielder’s choice.

After another walk to David Greer, the Sun Devils found themselves in another bases-loaded situation. Chris Beall then delivered a walk-off RBI single that scored two runs to give ASU the 7-6 win. Beall was 0-for-11 in his last seven games coming into Friday night’s game.

Saturday, ASU jumped ahead to a 3-1 lead after the first two innings. Starting pitcher Ryan Kellogg picked up his fifth win of the season after going six innings and giving up just two runs on seven hits. Kellogg also walked two and struck out two.

Ryan Burr came in to close down the ninth and picked up his ninth save of the season as the Sun Devils picked up the win 6-3 and also picked up their third PAC-12 series win of the season.

Sunday, Stanford fell apart.

ASU starter Brett Lilek was on the bump and took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. In the end, Lilek allowed just one run on three hits and struck out three in seven innings, tying a career-long outing.

The Sun Devil Designated Hitter Brian Serven had himself a day, going 5-5 with five hits, five RBIs, four runs scored and two home runs. According to thesundevils.com, Serven became the first Sun Devil since Michael Benjamin on March 4, 2012, to record five hits in a game and the first Devil since Nate Causey on May 17, 2014, with a pair of home runs.

The Cardinal pulled within three of the Sun Devils going into the bottom of the eight, put ASU blew the gates open, scratching across 6 runs in the bottom of the ninth, helped in part by a Serven 3-run home run, to take the 14-5 lead.

Ryan Burr came in to pitch the ninth. Stanford got a run across, but that’s all she would write, and the Devils walked away with the 14-6 win to sweep the Cardinal. Burr also picked up his 10th save of the season.

The Sun Devils are now 18-7 on the year and own a 7-2 record in PAC-12 play.

Coming up, the Sun Devils host New Mexico State on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. They will then head to Salt Lake City on Wednesday for a three-game series with Utah April 2-4.