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ASU baseball freshmen lead rout of Bethune-Cookman 15-7

Freshman outfielder Johnny Sewald follows through on a swing against Bethune-Cookman on Feb. 17. The ASU baseball team won their first series of the season over the Wildcats 2-1. (Photo by Murphy Bannerman)
Freshman outfielder Johnny Sewald follows through on a swing against Bethune-Cookman on Feb. 17. The ASU baseball team won their first series of the season over the Wildcats 2-1. (Photo by Murphy Bannerman)

Freshman outfielder Johnny Sewald follows through on a swing against Bethune-Cookman on Feb. 17. The ASU baseball team won their first series of the season over the Wildcats 2-1. (Photo by Murphy Bannerman) Freshman outfielder Johnny Sewald follows through on a swing against Bethune-Cookman on Feb. 17. The ASU baseball team won their first series of the season over the Wildcats 2-1. (Photo by Murphy Bannerman)

In Friday’s season opener, it took the ASU baseball team 11 innings to amass 10 hits.

On Saturday, it took only three.

The Sun Devils (2-0) put together a 19 hit performance en-route to a 15-7 victory over Bethune-Cookman (0-2).

The Sun Devils were hitting on all cylinders offensively as 12 players got a hit, with nine of them earning RBI’s.

Freshman David Graybill, making his first career start at first base, led the Sun Devils with three hits.

Graybill admitted he had a few butterflies in his stomach prior to the game. His performance didn’t show obviously it.

“I was extremely nervous,” Graybill said. “I really didn’t change anything. I was just trying to hit the ball, square it up, situational hitting, going the other way, trying to put good swings on the bat and it worked out.”

The Sun Devils fell behind to the Wildcats after only three batters. Sophomore starter Adam McCreery struggled to find a rhythm all game, allowing six runs over only three innings of action.

Each time the Sun Devils fell behind in the first three innings, they battled back and scored three runs in the first and second and added two in the third.

Freshman pitcher Ryan Kellogg also made his first Sun Devil appearance, replacing McCreery in the fourth with the Sun Devils up 8-6.

Kellogg made the most of the opportunity, striking out four over four scoreless innings to earn his first collegiate victory.

Kellogg was very pleased with his first appearance and didn’t think he was going to thrown into that situation this early in the season.

“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Kellogg said. “I was expecting to pitch well. I’ve pitched in a lot of big games, but this was definitely a big one to pitch in.”

Kellogg, along with fellow freshmen pitchers Ryan Burr and Brett Lilek, have combined to allow only one run in seven innings.

“It feels good to come out here and prove ourselves,” Kellogg said. “We’ve been working with our coaches a lot on throwing strikes and working the count and that’s been a big factor for us.”

The Sun Devils did make five errors, but Graybill thinks it’s not a big issue at this point in the season.

“I think we are just a little nervous,” Graybill said. “It’s the first series and there are a lot of expectations. Once everyone gets settled in and related, everything will get a lot better.”

With today’s win, the Sun Devils clinched their first series of the season, a feat Kellogg is happy to get out of the way.

“It feels good to get the first one,” Kellogg said. “At least we know we have one now.”

The Sun Devils finish up the series with the Wildcats tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 p.m.

Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu

 


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