No. 19 Arizona State baseball grinds out series win over No. 21 Oregon State

No. 19 Arizona State baseball rode high throughout Pac-12 play, but the Sun Devils had yet to face the top half of the conference.

No. 21 Oregon State (26-13, 11-10) came blazing on Friday with high-octane offense and stellar pitching, but the Sun Devils still hung tight and scored six runs to lose by two. The Beavers took the first game 13-11, but ASU found ways to win in the next two games to complete the series win.

The Sun Devils mounted comebacks in both Saturday and Sunday games, including a walk-off grand slam from Isaiah Jackson on Saturday.

“We didn’t play great this weekend, which is both positive and negative at the same time,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “We didn’t want to commit five errors and look sloppy and walk a ton of guys and not hold baserunners. That’s not a recipe for winning baseball. However, we took the series against a pretty dang good team.”

ASU (27-12, 13-4) remains in first place in the conference and has its longest stretch without a series loss in Pac-12 play since 2015.

Campos’ timeline unknown

ASU had to play without its best hitter after catcher Ryan Campos was ruled out for the series with an oblique strain. Campos has been out since being injured against GCU on April 11 and was close to returning against OSU.

However, when the coaching staff put him through a live at-bat on Thursday, his oblique didn’t feel right.

“He took one swing and felt it a little bit. I said, that’s enough, we’re not going to push this thing. He’s too valuable late in this run,” Bloomquist said. “If we got to be without him for another series then that’s what we have to do. I’d rather do that than risk trying to play him too early and possibly have him out for the rest of the season. He’s too valuable offensively, defensively. We got to smart with that one because those oblique injuries will linger on if you don’t take care of them up front.”

Campos leads the team with a .413 average and has scored 40 runs on 50 hits and was 4-for-14 in his last four games.

In his absence, redshirt senior Bronson Balholm did a good job at the plate and went 5-for-10 with three runs.

McLain comes through

Since returning from injury on April 11, right fielder Nick McLain has added more clutch hitting to ASU's lineup. The UCLA transfer has hit .379 through seven games and hit .454 (5-for-11) with eight RBIs against OSU.

In Sunday's 12-10 win, ASU scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth and tied the game when McLain smacked a double that scored two runs.

Rocky start for Dunn

Ross Dunn struggled in his second-straight start during Friday’s opener. Dunn’s first inning went anything but smoothly after OSU went up 5-0 via a two-run home run from Garrett Forrester and a bases-clearing double by Wilson Weber.

Throughout his four innings, the left hander struggled to sit down OSU’s lineup and had one scoreless inning. Dunn’s issues surrounded his six walks given up that resulted four runs. Dunn gave up seven earned runs and posted a 13.50 ERA in the 13-11 loss.

“He’s been ahead of the count, he’s putting hitters away, he’s got the stuff to do it,” Bloomquist said. “You can’t come out and walk that many guys and set the tone that way. Your Friday night guy has to come out and throw strikes in the zone and get your defense involved and right now it’s not happening.”

Bloomquist said he’ll talk with his staff on whether Dunn will resume his Friday night starting role.

“We need him to pitch the way he’s capable of. He’s better than that, he knows that,” Bloomquist said. “His stuff is outstanding stuff, but it doesn’t do a whole lot of good if you’re going to walk a lot of guys and fall behind hitters, especially a team like that. They’re too good of an offense to fall behind.”

Cleaning things up

One of the most bizarre parts of Saturday’s win was the fact that ASU recorded five errors and still won the game. OSU held a four-run lead throughout the game and benefited from ASU’s mistakes.

Starter Khristian Curtis’ walked five batters, but had two of the six runs scored were earned. Curtis blundered on an attempted pickoff and committed one of the five errors in four innings.

ASU slipped up several times in the infield with freshman shortstop Luke Hill recording three errors and junior second baseman Luke Keaschall committing one. Those two eventually came through for ASU at the plate when the Sun Devils rallied from a four-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth. Hill’s single scored two runs, while Keaschall tied the game on a double.

"At the end of the day, we were extremely sloppy defensively," Bloomquist said. "We came out and did not put on a display of fundamental baseball tonight defensively, but the resiliency of our guys in willing to bounce back from the adversity was tremendous again."

Up next

ASU will host Cal State Fullerton at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday at 6 p.m. and 2 p.m. The Titans are 22-11 and have won the last seven games.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU baseball stays atop Pac-12 with series win over Oregon State