No. 6 ASU baseball defeated Stanford 14-6 behind Brett Lilek's seven innings of three-hit ball and Brian Serven's (5-for-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI) career day, giving the Sun Devils their first sweep of the year and improving them to 3-3 in Sunday games.
After entering the game with a 5.32 ERA in six starts, Lilek (2-2) satisfied expectations, pitching a no-hitter through his first six innings of work.
In addition, his impressive outing worked toward ending the stereotype of ASU's (18-7, 7-2 Pac-12) Sunday games being "slugfests," which was something the team has been struggling to shake.
ASU head coach Tracy Smith has been working to improve that notion.
"It better be (improving)," he said. "We need to be at a point for this program where you can mix up our Friday, Saturday and Sunday starters and get the same results and I think that's what we should strive for and that's going to be the expectation here."
Although he walked three batters through the first six frames, Lilek induced many groundouts, choppers and weak pop flies en route to preserving ASU's 5-0 lead.
Smith said this was the type of performance the Sun Devils needed from their ace, who has been struggling for most of the season. He said he talked with Lilek about improving his performance or he would fall out of the rotation.
"We talked about that as that he needs to give us that type of outing on a Sunday," he said. "He knew his back was against the wall in terms of staying in the rotation and he responded in a very, very positive way."
However, the no-hitter became a recent memory in the top of the seventh when Stanford (10-14, 0-6 Pac-12) hit three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. Lilek showed an impressive display of damage control, though, as the Cardinal only scored one run in the inning.
ASU's offense did its part in providing insurance runs behind a five-hit, two-homer day from Serven. The Sun Devils hit three home runs and scored the most runs since its 15 on Feb. 27 against Purdue.
Serven said Sunday was the best day he has ever had at the plate in his baseball career.
"I was just trying to hit the ball hard...the goal is just to hit the ball hard every time," he said. "(For both home runs), I was just trying to stay with the plan, stay up the middle—thankfully, they were both hit well."
Needless to say, Smith said ASU really needed a strong individual performance like that.
"He was locked in real well and when you're getting hit and runs and knocking them out of the park, I guess things are going right for you," Smith said.
ASU attacked early once again, partly due to plate discipline. The Sun Devils drew three straight walks off Stanford starter Logan James to start the game, leading to a two-run first inning.
Server's five hits are the most in a single game for an ASU since Michael Benjamin on March 4, 2012.
— Justin Toscano (@justintoscano3) March 29, 2015
With a 5-0 lead, a three-run seventh inning appeared to have sealed the deal for the Sun Devils.
Serven hit a lead-off homer to left before junior RJ Ybarra's two-run home run made it 8-1 ASU.
However, as Lilek exited, trouble entered — the Cardinal's four-run eighth inning brought them within three runs.
Sohpomore Hever Bueno took over on the mound and allowed three earned runs, but failed to record any outs. Freshman lefty Eli Lingos allowed another run before junior Ryan Burr recorded the final out of the inning and stopped the bleeding.
ASU responded with a four-run eighth inning to put the game out of reach, though.
Serven's fifth hit of the day was a three-run home run to left field in the eighth inning, making him the first ASU player with five hits in a game since Michael Benjamin on March 4, 2012, and the first Sun Devil with two home runs in a game since Nate Causey did so last season.
Serven's second homer of the day is a three-run shot to left to make it 11-5 ASU.
— Justin Toscano (@justintoscano3) March 29, 2015
Stanford used seven pitchers in Sunday's game.
In a tough Pac-12 conference, sweeping a team can be difference later in the season, and Serven said Sunday's win was huge.
"Last weekend, we had the first two against Oregon and we couldn't sweep, and (Tracy Smith) really preaches how good teams need to win all three games in a series if you win the first two," he said. "We had a good mindset today and really came out firing, which is nice to see."
Emphasizing the importance of sweeps has been something Smith has done since the beginning of the season where ASU won Friday and Saturday, but lost on Sunday against Oklahoma State.
"You've got to take advantage of your opportunities," he said. "This still wasn't pretty—from an offensive standpoint, I thought we were very solid, but we've got some things that we need to tighten up a little bit."
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or follow @justintoscano3 on Twitter.
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