Devils double up No. 2 Arkansas
After Arkansas pitcher Trey Killian struck out seven of nine Arizona State batters — four of those looking — from the fourth through sixth innings, it was time to try something different.
ASU assistant coach Mike Benjamin noticed Arkansas third baseman Brian Anderson playing back and called on Trever Allen to drop down a one-out bunt in the seventh inning on Saturday.
Killian, a freshman, fielded the bunt at Surprise Stadium, but his throw to first was off line. Allen, Pac-12 Player of the Week, sprinted for second and ended up on third after a second throwing error by first baseman Jacob Mahan.
Cade Lynch replaced Killian and threw a 2-2 wild pitch that scored Allen with the winning run in a 3-1victory, No. 25 ASU’s second over No. 2 Arkansas in three days. Jake Peevyhouse doubled in an insurance run in the seventh after Michael Benjamin singled.
“Benjie put it in his bank that the third baseman was playing back my second at-bat and gave me a sign right off the bat,” Allen said. “I thought I’m going to put this down, get a base knock real quick and it ended up being a track meet, throwing the ball everywhere.”
The Arkansas miscues broke up a freshman pitching duel between ASU’s Ryan Kellogg, who worked six innings, and Killian (1-1). Alex Blackford (1-0), who pitched the seventh, got the win with freshman Ryan Burr working the final two innings. Burr threw the final three innings Thursday in a 3-2 win over Arkansas.
Allen’s bunt was “a great call,” ASU coach Tim Esmay said. “But when we you call it, you’ve got to execute it. That’s a game changer obviously.”
ASU (7-2) won its fourth in a row and goes for a four-game sweep at the Coca Cola Classic at 4 p.m. today against Gonzaga (6-4). Adam McCreery (0-1) will start on the mound.
Arkansas, which lost to Gonzaga on Friday, falls to 7-4.
Arkansas broke through against Kellogg with two outs in the fifth on Matt Vinson’s double down the right-field line and Joe Serrano’s single to right on a 3-1 count that the vocal crowd of 1,560 insisted home-plate umpire Joshua Surridge miscalled. Serrano is a sophomore from Tucson.
Kellogg stranded two runners in the Arkansas first and was extended to 21 pitches. Tyler Spoon singled in the first and third, stealing second in both innings, but the Razorbacks failed to bring him home.
“This wasn’t one of our better offensive performances, but a lot of it had to do with their kid (Killian),” Esmay said. “What Kellogg did well for us was not get caught up in what we were not doing on offense. He stayed true to what he can control. He did exactly what we asked him to do, kept us in the ballgame and gave us a chance to put the pressure on late and see if they could handle it.”
Allen singled to left leading off the second and scored from first when designated hitter Nathaniel Causey laced a 1-1 pitch into the right-field corner.
Arkansas Vinson cf Serrano lf Spoon rf Ficociello 2b Fisher 2b Anderson 3b Mahan 1b Wise c Schwanke dh McAfee ss Arkansas Arizona St.
Arizona St. 4 1 1 0 Coffman cf 4 0 1 1 Stankiewicz ss 4 0 2 0 Rossiter c 3 0 1 0 McDonald 2b 1 0 0 0 Allen rf 4 0 0 0 Causey dh 4 0 0 0 Benjamin 3b 4 0 0 0 Peeveyhouse lf 3 0 1 0 Graybill 1b 2000 010 000 000 20x 4000 4010 3000 4000 3220 3011 3110 3011 2000 — — 1 3