ASU Baseball: No. 2 Stanford outlasts Sun Devils

Arizona State Sun Devils’ men’s baseball traveled up to northern California, looking to upset No. 2 Stanford, but fell 3-1 on Friday night.

The Cardinal got the fireworks going first when Kyle Stowers hit a solo shot over the right field fence to open up the scoring in the second inning.

In the bottom of the third, with two outs and two strikes and one man on, Nico Hoerner sliced one down the right field line for an RBI triple to extend the Stanford lead, 2-0.

Stanford would add an insurance run after a wild pitch by Jake Godfrey with the bases loaded.

The Sun Devils struggled to muster up any offense, as Tristan Beck tossed seven scoreless innings with five strikeouts.

It wasn’t until Beck was removed when ASU finally broke through. Carter Aldrete hit one to the warning track for an RBI double to bring the game within two in the eighth inning, down 3-1.

Aldrete registered that RBI off of Jack Little, a midseason All-American, for his first earned run of the season.

Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, the offense sparked a little too late and could not do anything with their final three outs.

Arizona State dropped its fourth straight to drop to 14-20 overall and 6-7 in Pac-12 play. Meanwhile, Stanford improved to 25-5 with a 7-3 conference record.

The series continues Saturday for game two of three. First pitch is set for 3:05 p.m. MST at the Sunken Diamond in Stanford.