WICHITA, Kan. --No comeback needed this time.
On Wednesday, the ASU baseball team was content with its give-and-take relationship with Wichita State.
The No. 10 Shockers gave the Sun Devils plenty of chances in the form of four errors, and ASU parlayed aggressiveness at the plate and a masterful pitching performance from starter Jeff Mousser into a 4-3 win over Wichita State before 4,370 at Eck Stadium.
Working on only four days' rest, Mousser relinquished one unearned run on two hits in 6 1/3 innings and struck out five, including back-to-back Wichita State batters in the fifth after junior shortstop Nick McCoola reached on a leadoff single.
The Sun Devils (30-13) manufactured all four of their runs, and they would need them after Wichita State (28-9) staged a late rally against junior Jason Urquidez, who worked in relief for the second straight game.
Junior third baseman Josh Asanovich drove home junior shortstop Dustin Pedroia in the first with a single to right before junior catcher Tuffy Gosewisch's sacrifice fly gave ASU a 2-0 lead. Pedroia had an RBI groundout in the third, and the Sun Devils added another run when Asanovich scored on a throwing error.
"It was great to come out swinging and to be confident," said Sun Devils head coach Pat Murphy, whose team improved to 13-3 against ranked opponents. "We were aggressive. We've just got to keep battling."
Mousser (4-3) set the tone from the beginning, and he didn't allow more than one base runner in an inning until the seventh, when he was relieved by Urquidez.
Wichita State drew its first hit in the fourth on senior infielder Brandon Green's single to right, but Green didn't advance past first. Mousser faced only four batters in the fifth, and he retired the side in the sixth before running out of gas in the seventh.
"My changeup was working really well, and they were rolling over it," said Mousser, who won for the third time in as many starts. "It was really windy, and I was trying to keep the ball on the ground so that the wind couldn't be a factor."
Junior catcher Joe Muich's seventh-inning single off Urquidez put the Shockers on the board, and Wichita State pulled within 4-3 in the eighth when senior first baseman Logan Sorensen hit a two-run home run over the right field fence.
Urquidez retired the next two batters after Sorensen's blast, but was replaced by freshman Zechry Zinicola after walking senior designated hitter Bryan Erstad. McCoola's single moved pinch runner Phil Napolitan to third, although Zinicola got Muich to pop out to second to end the inning.
Zinicola retired the side in the ninth for his third save of the season. Wichita State sophomore left fielder Kenny Waddell went down swinging to end the game.
"Two wins versus a top-10 team, I hope it wakes somebody up," Murphy said. "We've done it all year. We've got more wins against (ranked) opponents than anybody, and I hope somebody notices."
After a shaky fifth inning in which ASU plated three runners but failed to score, senior southpaw Tommy Hottovy was almost perfect in relief of starter Mike Pelfrey, who suffered his first loss of the season.
The Sun Devils went down in order in the sixth and the eighth, when Hottovy fanned three straight. In the ninth, junior first baseman Jeff Larish reached on a single to right, but Zinicola struck out for the fourth time to end the threat.
"I figured we'd tack on a few more, but with a team like this, they're obviously not going to die," said Asanovich, who went 2-for-3 and finished the two-game series 5-for-7 with four RBIs. "We definitely needed to tack on a few more, but it's a good thing we've got our pitching staff behind us."
Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@asu.edu.
