Winning at Packard Stadium has become contagious to the No. 4 ASU baseball team, sweeping through the Bob Schaefer memorial baseball classic and improving to 28-1 on the year.
The Sun Devils are now 17-0 in their home ballpark, and have won 19-consecutive games overall. It's their longest winning streak since the 1990 club won 23 straight.
"We're fortunate to be one of those programs that plays 35 home games a year, and we've had a good go," ASU head coach Pat Murphy said. "Winning disguises a lot of things though. You still have to work extra hard on your attitude and how you are going to approach this game."
Sunday, ASU took down Cal-State Northridge 12-2. The Sun Devils led 3-2 in the fourth inning but used two-consecutive three-run innings to open the gap. Senior third baseman Dennis Wyrick started the rally in each inning, singling and scoring in the fourth, then doubling and coming around in the fifth. He finished the game 3-for-3 and reached base in all five plate appearances.
"It's pretty important (to get the leadoff guy on) considering the way our offense works. If we get a guy on, we like to move him around," said Wyrick, who went 6-for-8 in the tournament and is now batting .416. "The way we've been swinging the bats with two outs though, anything can happen."
Sophomore first baseman Jeff Larish blasted his 11th home run of the year in the seventh, a three-run job. His four RBI against the Matadors (5-17) give him a team-leading 58 on the season. Sophomore right-hander Jered Liebeck picked up his fifth win of the season in five innings of work, and now has 10 for his career.
Saturday, the Sun Devils needed a strong effort from the bullpen to crawl back into the game, and senior Beau Vaughan provided it with 4.1 innings of superb work in a 6-4 comeback win over Utah (7-8). Down 3-0 in the fourth, Vaughan replaced starter Ben Thurmond with the bases loaded and two outs. After allowing a single to Utah catcher Wick Udy to plate a run, Vaughan went on to retire 12 in a row and 13 of the 15 he faced.
In the meantime, ASU battled back to tie the game with a four spot in the fifth. Consecutive doubles by Steve Garrabrants and Tuffy Gosewisch got ASU on the board. With another run in, West then singled through the left side to even the score.
In the eighth, Garrabrants came through once again, doubling home Wyrick for the go-ahead run.
"It was two strikes and a man on first and I knew I had to get the job done," said Garrabrants, who had five doubles in the tournament. "I ended up going down and hitting it really hard and Dennis scored from first."
Gosewisch then knocked in Garrabrants for some insurance, and Ryan Schroyer struck out the side in the ninth for his sixth save of the year.
On Friday, ASU won with a 19-0 shellacking of Southern Utah. Freshman left fielder Travis Buck had a spectacular night, going 5-for-5 and hitting for the cycle. He completed it with a grand slam home run in the bottom of the sixth. The towering shot went over the right field fence in Buck's last at bat of the seven-inning shortened game.
"The way we were hitting I knew I was going to get another shot," said Buck, who drove in seven runs Friday. "I wasn't really thinking about it, but the game's over and it's pretty cool. It's something special."
Buck's grand slam came in the midst of an eight-run sixth inning after ASU had already tallied eight times in the previous two frames against the Thunderbirds (3-4). Dustin Pedroia, Frank Mesa and Garrabrants all had three hits in the game while Pedroia drove home two and Garrabrants knocked in three.
"With this team, everyone is going to pick up everyone," Buck said. "If one of the big guys has a bad day, there's going to be three or four other guys that are going to do it. Fortunately, it was my night to help the team, but it wasn't just me."
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
