ASU baseball's offensive troubles continued on Saturday as the Sun Devils fell to No. 2 Oregon State 4-0 at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
The loss dropped ASU below .500 at 9-10 overall and kept the team winless in Pac-12 play.
In the three consecutive losses to the Beavers (17-1, 3-0 Pac-12), the Sun Devils only managed to score one run. In Saturday's loss, ASU managed only three hits.
"Unfortunately, we didn't do a lot offensively the entire weekend to get a little momentum going in any way shape or form offensively," ASU head coach Tracy Smith said. "And that's tough."
This was the second shutout loss of the series for the Sun Devils, as they lost to the Beavers 2-0 on Thursday.
And in both games there was a similar theme: A young and inexperienced ASU team getting eaten alive by dominant starting pitching from OSU.
On Saturday, it was Beaver redshirt junior pitcher Jake Thompson who shut out the Sun Devils. Thompson tossed 7.1 innings with 10 strikeouts while giving up just two hits and three walks. He moved to 5-0 on the year with a 1.08 ERA.
"When you got an opposition out there that is just shutting you down time and again on the mound, it makes things tough," Smith said. "It makes things tough on the field and it makes things tough in the dugout. I guess the silver lining is we don't play them again."
One positive from Saturday's game was the performance of senior pitcher Eder Erives.
T4 | Beavers put another on the board with a 2-out single, making the score 2-0.
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) March 18, 2017
Erives notches his 3rd strikeout to end the inning. pic.twitter.com/eLODvU57O2
Erives pitched 4.2 innings, allowing two earned runs, seven hits and four walks. Not amazing by any stretch, but a solid performance for a pitcher who had struggled early in the season with an injury.
"I thought he did a good job, much like Eli (Lingos) on Thursday, of giving the team a chance to win," Smith said. "In my observation, Eder did his job. He has not been extended yet, and to go that deep in the game, he did exactly what we needed him to do."
Even with Erives' good outing, the Sun Devils were outclassed from the start by Oregon State.
"They just beat us, they flat out beat us," Smith said.
After the game, the Sun Devils held a team meeting in an effort to get on the same page as a group.
ASU will look to get back on track next weekend against USC in its second road series of the season. The first game of the three-game set is scheduled for Friday, March 24.
Reach the reporter at mpharri7@asu.edu or follow @Harris_Mark7 on Twitter.
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