Sophomore pitcher Eder Erives relieves starter Brett Lilek (not pictured) in a game against Oklahoma State, Friday, Feb. 13, 2015, at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The Sun Devils defeated the Cowboys 5-3 on Saturday afternoon. (J. Bauer-Leffler/The State Press)Once again, No. 18 ASU baseball (2-0) took advantage of No. 12 Oklahoma State's (0-2) starting pitcher and jumped out to an early lead, forcing the Cowboys to rely on the bullpen.
Senior pitchers Tyler Nurdin and Jon Perrin, the Cowboys' starters for Games 1 and 2 of the series, only pitched 4.2 combined innings, giving up five earned runs and 10 hits between their two performances.
In the season opener, ASU baseball inflicted the damage in the fourth, scoring two runs to break the tie.
However, the Sun Devils attacked Perrin early in the second game and jumped out to a 3-0 lead after just two innings and scored all five of its runs in the first three innings.
In both games, ASU forced Oklahoma State to not only go deep into its bullpen—the Cowboys used four relievers in game one and two in game two.
Although ASU's three relievers gave up four hits in 5.1 innings in the first game, junior Ryan Burr struck out five batters, including three straight in the top of the ninth with runners on second and third to keep the score even.
In the second, junior ace Ryan Kellogg (1-0) pitched five innings, giving up three earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
After senior pitcher Darin Gillies gave up a hit and a walk while recording no outs, he was replaced by junior Jordan Aboites, who tallied 2.2 shutout innings and recorded two strikeouts in his first appearance since his transition to second base started.
"I've just tried to stick with what I've been doing in practice," Aboites said. "It went well and I was really happy with the performance."
ASU head coach Tracy Smith said he believed Gillies could have escaped the sixth inning trouble unscathed, but put Aboites in because he better fit the overall situation.
"I've heard all about how competitive Jordan is, and not that Darin isn't, but maybe he isn't used to those situations as much," he said. "I thought they were going to bunt and I wanted a good, athletic player and Jordan is probably the best we have in that aspect."
He also credited the bullpen for preserving the lead, even though the Sun Devils failed to score again after the third inning.
"We didn't swing it as well today and still found a way to win it and shut them down with what we're going to win consistently with, which is our pitching and defense," Smith said.
Burr replaced Aboites on the mound in the eighth inning and recorded the final out the bases loaded, which preserved the Sun Devils' 5-3 lead. Burr's 1.1 innings of solid relief and first save of the year gave Kellogg the first win for an ASU starting pitcher this season.
Burr also tied ASU baseball's school record for career saves with his 25th save in game two of the series.
He said tying the record will feel more important later, but the wins are most important now.
"If I'm getting saves, then that means we're winning," Burr said. "It's a great start for us, but we're not satisfied with just taking two out of three—we're ready to go out and get the sweep tomorrow."
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or on Twitter @justintoscano3.
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