ASU baseball evens series with Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. -- The Arizona State baseball team evened its three-game series against Stanford with a 3-2 win Friday night behind seven strong frames from starting left-hander Ryan Kellogg and a three-run fourth inning at Sunken Diamond.

Freshman catcher Brian Serven hit a two-run homer, redshirt junior second baseman Tucker Esmay added an RBI and redshirt junior right fielder Trever Allen tallied a pair of doubles to lead the Sun Devils (21-15, 10-7), who have won nine of their past 13 Pac-12 games.

Kellogg (5-2) did not allow an earned run in seven innings and scattered seven hits to earn his fifth win of the season. He has not walked a batter in the past 13 1/3 innings and in 11 of his 25 career starts, including his fifth this season. Kellogg now has four outings of at least seven innings this season and did not allow an earned run for the third time in his career. He tossed a perfect first and fourth innings, and stranded six runners on the base, including the tying run at third in both the bottom of the sixth and seventh.

Sophomore right-handers Jordan Aboites and Ryan Burr combined to close out the final two innings. Aboites allowed one hit, but induced a pair of groundouts and struck out one in a scoreless eighth inning, and Burr (8) gave up a leadoff double to start the ninth, but retired the next three batters, including a groundout to Stanford's best hitter, Alex Blandino, to end the game.

Burr recorded his eighth save of the season and the 20th of his career. He is now tied with Kevin Dukes (1978-81) for the second-most saves in school history, five behind Doug Nurnberg (1965-67).

Serven's two-run homer and a sacrifice fly to center fielder by Esmay staked the Devils a 3-0 advantage in the top of the fourth inning. Sophomore third baseman Dalton DiNatale reached base on a dropped foul ball by the Cardinal third baseman and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Serven's second home run of the season. Junior shortstop Drew Stankiewicz followed with a single, moved to third on a wild pitch and a balk, and was plated by Esmay.

The Cardinal (14-17, 5-9) cut its deficit to one, 3-2, in the bottom of the sixth inning with a pair of singles and a pair of fielding errors by the Devils. A misplayed groundball with two outs by Stankiewicz extended the frame and left fielder Alex Dunlap drove a single to left field in the next at-bat that went under the glove of junior left fielder Jake Peevyhouse and allowed two runs to score from first and second base, respectively.

Stanford starter Cal Quantrill (3-4) took the loss after he conceded three runs, including one earned, on five hits and struck out seven in six innings.