The bright lights and large crowd of 3,675 didn’t intimidate freshman Aaron West.

He was surprised, though, to hear that he would be making his first career start for the Washington baseball team at Safeco Field only as early as Wednesday, but pitching coach Tighe Dickinson had confidence in West going against No. 3 Arizona State.

“[Dickinson said] ‘come out, throw hard, throw strikes, get ahead and we can beat these guys if we pitch good,’” West said.

It turned out that pitching was the least of the Huskies’ problems last night as their offense couldn’t get anything going against ASU starter Mike Leake, falling in rather unimpressive fashion, 3-1, in the first game of a three game series against the Sun Devils.

West only surrendered one run on three hits in his 3 2/3 innings of work, but four walks and one hit batter helped push his pitch count higher than UW head coach Ken Knutson had hoped, possibly the result of feeling nervous in his first start.

“Add Safeco, against Arizona State; it’s a lot to ask a kid,” said Knutson of West’s outing. “But he’s got a nice temperament for a pitcher and not a lot of things get to him.”

Beyond the one run given up by West, the Huskies’ relievers, sophomore Geoff Brown, and freshmen Andrew Kittredge and Seth Haehl, limited the Sun Devils to just two runs over 5 1/3 innings, even managing to keep dangerous slugger Jason Kipnis at bay. The center fielder went 0-for-2 with three walks.

“We’re not going to give into him and throw pitches down the middle,” Knutson said of pitching to Kipnis. “He’s a hot dominant hitter in college baseball right now, so we just take our chances with the other guys.”

Meanwhile, Leake was shutting Washington (10-16, 1-3 Pac-10) down with ease.

The Huskies managed just four hits off the ASU pitcher, one of them an RBI single by catcher Brett Wilcox in the fourth inning. Leake finished with 10 strikeouts.

And while the Dawgs did get five walks, none of them translated into runs, as Leake got out of several innings with strikeouts and with the help of double plays.

“We were just trying to make him throw the ball up,” said Knutson of batting against Leake. “He’s one of the best pitchers in America and he showed why. It was just dominant stuff, and we battled, but we just didn’t have much to show for it.”

The Huskies had one big chance to tie or take the lead against ASU (21-5, 6-1 Pac-10) in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs for Wilcox.

Sun Devil coach Pat Murphy brought in left-handed pitcher Mitchell Lambson to pitch against lefty Wilcox, and Knutson asked Wilcox during Lambson’s warm-up tosses whether he felt confident in his ability to go up against the southpaw.

“He came up and goes ‘hey can you hit this lefty,’” Wilcox said. “And I go ‘yeah, definitely, I can hit this guy.’”

But Wilcox hit a sharp grounder to the first baseman and the inning ended, finalizing what was the only opportunity late the Huskies had to get back into the game or take the lead.

There was perhaps one good thing to take away from what was otherwise another disappointing loss in an already disappointing season for the Huskies.

“A lot of the freshmen are really good and stepping up for us,” Wilcox said of West, Kittredge and Haehl. “It’s really impressive to see.”

NOTE: The Dawgs return to Husky Ballpark Saturday and Sunday to finish off their three-game series against the Sun Devils.