It was the Trevor and Trever show Friday in Knoxville as the ASU baseball team knocked off Tennessee 4-0 in the opening game of its series against the Volunteers (1-4).
Junior pitcher Trevor Williams started for the Sun Devils (3-1) and was dominating all night, allowing only three hits and a walk while striking out eight over seven innings of work for his first win of the season.
The eight strikeouts were one shy of Williams’s career mark and the junior said he felt good in his first road start of the 2013 season.
“Everything was rolling together from my warmup through the game,” Williams said. “Today, I felt very much in control.”
Williams had only 86 pitches (63 of which were strikes) when he was pulled, but said it was just strategy.
“I wanted to stay in,” Williams said. “I mean I never want to come out, but we were on a roll and they were looking towards next week because I might be on short rest.”
Williams received his offensive support from redshirt sophomore rightfielder Trever Allen.
With the Sun Devils up a run with two men on base in the fifth inning, Allen smoked a pitch from Volunteer senior starter Zack Godley over the left field fence for his first home run of the season and fourth of his career.
“I just got a hanging curveball, sat on it and hit it out,” Allen said.
Allen’s homerun was crucial as the Sun Devils struggled all game with runners in scoring position, leaving the bases loaded twice.
“We were hitting the ball pretty good all day and we just weren’t having those clutch hits,” Allen said. “But we got one and it helped Trevor (Williams) get a bit of confidence.”
The defense behind Williams also provided a boost.
Allen and junior centerfielder Kasey Coffman made back-to-back spectacular plays to end the first and second innings and the Sun Devils recorded their first errorless performance since May 13, 2012, at Gonzaga.
“They saved me a few times today,” Williams said. “I definitely have to give them a shout out for that.”
The Sun Devils took the lead in the second inning when sophomore designated hitter Nathaniel Causey earned his first hit and RBI of the season, singling home senior catcher Max Rossiter.
The Sun Devils took Causey’s RBI single and Allen’s three-run homerun into the ninth and freshman pitcher Brett Lilek finished off the Volunteers, but not without a little excitement.
Lilek walked the bases loaded, but was able to get Volunteer freshman right fielder Christin Stewart to ground out to first to end the game.
“Lilek’s a good pitcher,” Williams said. “He had a great inning the inning before and he knows how to get outs so he just made it a little sketchy tonight, but we got the win and that’s all that matters.”
Allen added that the dominating performance of the Sun Devils was a testament to the team’s already apparent strength.
“It definitely showed us our potential tonight,” Allen said. “We definitely have some things to work on, but it was awesome that we got a win out of here.”
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
