Long Beach State junior infielder Jonathan Serven hits a base hit to single in a run against Arizona State on Saturday, March 7, 2015 at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The Dirtbags defeated the Sun Devils 4-2. (Ben Moffat/The State Press)One pitch.
It was all sophomore shortstop Garrett Hampson needed to put his team ahead 4-3 with a grand slam Friday night.
And on Saturday, it was junior right fielder Zach Rivera crushing a three-run blast that sailed dangerously close to the left field foul pole with the precision of a heat-seeking missile to put the Dirtbags (9-5) ahead, en route to a 4-2 win over the Sun Devils (8-5).
In baseball circles, winning a close game seems to carry with it more significance, though most teams will take a win any way they can get one.
ASU has performed notably better in high-scoring games, but is 0-3 when scoring less than three runs this season. (8-2 when scoring three or more).
Junior left-hander Ryan Kellogg out-dueled his counterpart, junior right-hander Tanner Brown, throwing seven innings and allowing a mere two runs while racking up eight strikeouts.
“You always want your starter to leave a performance like that with a win,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “ He did his job, it was Kellogg being Kellogg really.”
The Sun Devil bats were relatively quiet a night after exploding for six runs on 13 hits, totaling just two hits Saturday night.
An RBI single from junior designated hitter RJ Ybarra scored junior center fielder Johnny Sewald, who had reached base after being hit by a pitch for the fourth time this season.
With Kellogg on the mound, there wasn’t much a Long Beach State club hitting a collective .243 could do to pull even.
The Canada native struck out the side in the first, retiring the first six hitters he faced.
He threw 89 pitches – 65 of them strikes – enabling him to establish his curveball as his go-to pitch in two-strike counts.
Sewald drew a leadoff walk in the sixth that turned into an insurance run courtesy of a bloop single by sophomore shortstop Colby Woodmansee and advanced to third on a sacrifice fly from Ybarra.
This set up senior right fielder Trever Allen’s 13th hit and fifth RBI on a single through the right side, providing ASU with an insurance run for a 2-0 lead.
But after the home run by Rivera, the Dirtbags tacked on another on junior third baseman Jonathan Serven’s RBI single off of sophomore Hever Bueno.
“It was a good baseball game,” Smith said. “I’ll take that effort every day of the week. We were focused, we played hard, we didn’t kick it around. Sometimes, you’ve just got to tip your cap.”
Sophomore third baseman David Greer and Sewald each singled, but a ninth-inning rally fell short as redshirt junior Ty Provencher earned his fourth save and Long Beach State evened the series to set up a rubber match Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
Reach the reporter at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.
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