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ASU defeats Meiji University in exhibition

ROCK AND FIRE: ASU junior pitcher Merrill Kelly delivers a pitch during a game earlier this season at Packard Stadium. (Photo by Scott Stuk)
ROCK AND FIRE: ASU junior pitcher Merrill Kelly delivers a pitch during a game earlier this season at Packard Stadium. (Photo by Scott Stuk)

The sound of their bats carried a different tune. The windups were a little slower and more deliberate, and the chatter featured a distinctly different tone.

But the game was a familiar one when players on the Meiji University baseball team faced No. 2 ASU on Tuesday night at Packard Stadium.

About 5,800 miles from its home in Tokyo, Meiji played the Sun Devils in an exhibition game as part of a two-week trip to the United States that featured games against several club teams, including ones from ASU and UA — both games won for Meiji.

It was clear the game, which the Sun Devils won 9-1, was an exciting opportunity for the squad from Japan.

Though there was no translator available to get reactions from Meiji’s players on playing a major American university, there was clear unbridled enthusiasm coming from the visitor’s dugout.

Chattering loudly for each player to the plate and hustling after every slowly chopped ball, the Japanese squad left little to be desired in terms of effort.

But the bats, the aluminum ones used by ASU — Meiji played with wooden bats — were the difference.

After Meiji took its only lead of the game on a wild pitch in the top of the second, sophomore infielder Riccio Torrez blasted a three-run homer over the left field fence to give the Sun Devils all the scoring they would need.

Torrez, who is batting .458 on the season — stats for the exhibition game didn’t count for season totals — also added a two-run triple in the bottom of the sixth.

Freshman infielder Deven Marrero added three hits, part of a 12-hit output for the Sun Devils.

ASU freshman Alex Blackford got the start on the mound and threw six innings of one-run ball and giving up three hits and striking out seven.

Josh Moody pitched three innings of scoreless, one-hit relief.

It was ASU’s first international exhibition game since 1999, when it also hosted a team from Japan.

While the score didn’t work out in Meiji’s favor, its players didn’t look disappointed.

After the game, players from both teams gathered at home plate to take a group photo. Good memories from a baseball trip in America.

Reach the reporter at nksomide@asu.edu


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