The No. 23 Arizona State baseball team defeated the No. 20 Oregon State Beavers by a score of 3-2 Friday night in front of 2,948 fans at Packard Stadium. Trevor Williams (6-2) continued where Brady Rodgers left off last night, as Williams pitched seven innings, only allowing four hits and two earned runs.
"(The) Ball was coming out well, pitches were being made and we got outs, so it was a good win," said Williams.
"Our mentality from last weekend to this weekend has definitely changed," said Williams. "These guys (OSU) took the Pac-10 championship away from us last year, we knew we can't let them take that again, and I mean it showed the last two games."
The only offense for ASU came in the fifth inning when with two on and two outs Deven Marrero tripled down the right field line, scoring Michael Benjamin and Andrew Aplin.
Oregon State was playing Marrero to pull the ball as OSU right fielder Dylan Davis was nowhere near in position to make the play.
"I was looking up there and thinking, just flick a ball down the right side here," said head coach Tim Esmay. "I don't think positioning was a factor, if they had played straight up that would have been a tough one to ge to, that one was hit pretty hard and it was down the line," said Esmay.
In the next at-bat, Joey DeMichele singled in Marrero and gave ASU a 3-0 lead.
That score held up until the eighth inning when after Williams allowed the first two batters of the inning to reach base, he was replaced by Robert Ravago. With two outs in the eighth Oregon State left fielder Michael Conforto hit a two RBI single. Ravago was able to get out of the eighth with the ASU lead in tact.
Jake Barrett came in a pitched a perfect ninth inning to record the save, striking out two of the three batters he faced. "Jake Barrett was lights out in that ninth inning," said Esmay. "That was about as good as I've seen him be in a long time, he was in control of all his pitches."
Arizona State will look for the sweep tomorrow afternoon. Freshman Darin Gillies (0-3) is on the mound for ASU and first pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at Packard Stadium.