Arizona State looked routine in its sweep of Washington this weekend, but the Huskies looked overwhelmed.

The Dawgs were simply unable to keep ASU’s lineup in check and had trouble hitting the Sun Devils’ pitchers, allowing Arizona State to push its ERA from low to lower.

After keeping things close Friday but losing 3-1 at Safeco Field, UW lost 12-1 Saturday. And needing to salvage the series to at least stay with the middle group of teams in the Pac-10, the Huskies sent their ace, Jorden Merry, to the hill, only to see him struggle mightily with his control, succumbing to the ASU onslaught 6-2 yesterday.

It was the second three-game sweep the Huskies have suffered this season.

“We’re struggling,” said UW head coach Ken Knutson. “We’re struggling offensively, and our starting pitching hasn’t been good.”

Merry appeared primed for a turnaround after laboring through his previous few outings and recovering from some lingering arm pain. However, he only pitched 3 1/3 innings yesterday, allowing six walks and five runs, all of them earned, making him the ninth UW starter in a row who has failed to go at least five innings.

He said he wasn’t feeling any lingering effects from injury, but is still trying to discover what is making him so erratic on the mound.

“It’s not a confidence thing,” Merry said. “I trust myself. I trust my teammates behind me. I really don’t know what it is yet — that’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

No. 3 Arizona State (23-5, 8-1 Pac-10) used a two-run second inning and a four-run fourth inning to get ahead early yesterday. Pitcher Mitchell Lambson threw a complete game, limiting the Huskies to two runs, both coming on a Kyle Conley home run in the sixth inning.

Aside from Conley’s homer, Washington (10-18, 1-5 Pac-10) managed just five hits and struck out nine times, getting fanned an astonishing 36 times in the series.

“[ASU] certainly pitched really well,” Knutson said. “[Yesterday] was a game we needed to try to win 3-2 or 2-1, and we had very few opportunities to hold them down.”

Injuries to several top hitters have caused the Huskies to falter on offense.

Aaron Russell is out with a sore back, Ty Rasmussen is out for the rest of the season and Pierce Rankin is playing with a torn meniscus.

“Those are big bats in our lineup that, in September, is who you’re looking for to produce runs, and they’re not around anymore,” Knutson said. “We don’t have a whole lot of options.”

But the players aren’t getting down. After all, they did just face the No. 3 team in the country and had to face another perennial NCAA tournament contender, Stanford, two weekends ago.

“It’s a long season,” Merry said. “We’re just down a little bit. It’s baseball, it’s going to happen. We can’t get down on ourselves; we’ve just got to compete.”

Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@dailyuw.com.