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Sewald’s hustle ignites ASU baseball in series win over Stanford

ASU clinches its third Pac-12 series

Sun Devils storm the field after their victory against Stanford, Saturday, March 28, 2015, at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The Sun Devils defeated the Cardinal 6-3. (Krista Tillman/The State Press)
Sun Devils storm the field after their victory against Stanford, Saturday, March 28, 2015, at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The Sun Devils defeated the Cardinal 6-3. (Krista Tillman/The State Press)

No. 6 ASU baseball beat Stanford 6-2 to take the series Saturday, highlighted by the performances of junior center fielder Johnny Sewald and Stanford sophomore second baseman Tommy Edman at the top of their respective lineups.

The leadoff man is asked to be the catalyst of a lineup – to swing at good pitches, and pass on bad ones, but most importantly, his job is to get on base and be a threat to score once he gets there.

“Obviously, I’ve been slumping the past couple weeks,” Sewald said. “Just getting on base and in scoring positon, that’s contributed to a lot of our runs this year.”

The two players were involved in several positive occurrences on offense – Sewald went 1-for-2 with an RBI single in the second inning, and two walks; he also scored twice and stole a base.

Sewald said that head coach Tracy Smith has expressed confidence in him leading the charge, even though he went into tonight’s contest hitting .271 on the season and .185 in conference play.

“He’s always behind me,” Sewald said. “It’s kind of nice to know that, even if you’re going to struggle, you still have your spot and you can still play the game. As long as I’m on base, that’s guys are going to hit me in and that’s going to score us a lot of runs. ”

In the fourth inning, Sewald got a boost when he made an impressive defensive paly, running to make an over-the-shoulder catch on a fly ball straight back over his head off the bat of Stanford freshman first baseman Matt Winaker.

“That’s part of my game that I take personally to heart,” Sewald said. “Offense comes and goes in slumps, that’s baseball. Defense never takes a slump ­– you should catch every ball, that’s my mentality.”

Edman went 3-for-6 in last year’s series, in which the Cardinal (10-13, 0-5 Pac-12) won two of three at Sunken Diamond, delivering a two clutch hits (including an RBI single) as a pinch hitter late in the first two games.

Saturday, Edman went 2-for-3 with an RBI single in the fifth and added a walk, and two runs scored.

He had a golden opportunity – albeit a challenging one – in the eighth inning with junior closer Ryan Burr on the mound and runners on second and third after junior left fielder Johnny Locher doubled and junior shortstop Drew Jackson singled and stole second base.

He worked a full count with runners in scoring position and two outs, and struck out looking.

The Sun Devils (16-7, 5-2 Pac-12) pounded out 10 total hits and chased Stanford freshman starter Gabe Cramer, who lasted two innings in his first start.

Junior left hander Ryan Kellogg (5-0) tossed six innings and allowed two earned runs on seven hits, walking two hitters on 83 total pitches.

“My command on my fastball wasn’t as sharp,” Kellogg said. “My changeup felt pretty good, my slider was hit-or-miss, and my curveball was pretty good. But at the end of the day, they were free swingers, so whatever you threw, they were going to swing at.”

Kellogg has emerged as a model of consistency in his second year as a key part of the rotation, due in part to his emphasis on advance preparation with the intent of making every start count.

“I’ve got one day a week to do whatever I can to help this team win,” Kellogg said. “I can do whatever I can on the bench to keep the energy up, but Saturday is my day to really have an impact. I take that very seriously, and that’s my movitation to work hard all week.”

ASU hosts Stanford in the series finale at Phoenix Muni on Sunday.

 

Reach the reporter at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.

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