With a huge Pac-10 series against UCLA looming, looking ahead wasn’t a problem Tuesday night for the ASU baseball team.
The No. 2 Sun Devils found success with contrasting offensive styles Tuesday night in an 11-5 nonconference victory over San Francisco in front of an announced crowd of 3,040 at Packard Stadium.
Senior outfielder Kole Calhoun kicked off the scoring in the first with a solo home run to center field, giving him the team lead, albeit briefly, with seven home runs.
Sophomore second baseman Zack MacPhee launched an “anything you can do I can do better” round tripper onto Rural Road in the seventh to match Calhoun with seven homers in the season.
Not to be outdone, sophomore Riccio Torrez hit his seventh homer of the season to center in the eighth, creating a three-way logjam atop the “Going Yard Department.”
“It’s that time of year where pitching staffs start accumulating innings,” ASU coach Tim Esmay said. “We have to work real hard to make sure we’re ready for pitches like that and making good swings, and guys are doing that.”
ASU’s highest-scoring inning, though, a four-run fourth, featured just one ball hit out of the infield.
Freshman outfielder Andrew Aplin and senior third baseman Raoul Torrez drew consecutive one-out walks, and junior outfielder Matt Newman knocked in Aplin with an RBI single to right.
After sophomore catcher Austin Barnes struck out, sophomore shortstop Drew Maggi beat out a throw for an RBI infield single that scored Torrez. Newman came home after USF pitcher Garrett Luippold was called for a balk. Then, with Maggi running on the pitch, MacPhee went the other way to right field for a run-scoring single that put ASU up 5-3.
The Sun Devils (34-5) blew the game open in the fifth when Barnes cleared the loaded bases with a two-out double to the center field fence.
“It felt good to finally break through and drive some runs in,” Barnes said. “It put a little distance between us and San Francisco, so it was nice to get that hit for sure.”
Junior Jimmy Patterson made the start for the Sun Devils and gave up three runs (one earned) in four innings.
USF (22-19) jumped on ASU miscues to take an early lead in the second after a two-out error by Raoul Torrez and a walk was followed by a two-run double off the bat of senior second baseman Robert Abel.
The Dons increased their lead to 3-1 in the third on an RBI double to left by sophomore first baseman Nik Balog.
ASU sophomore Mitchell Lambson pitched three shut-out innings in relief of Patterson, including a perfect sixth and seventh.
USF got to freshman Jake Barrett for two runs (one earned) in the eighth, but sophomore Jordan Swagerty closed the door with a scoreless ninth.
ASU completes the two-game set against USF Wednesday night. Esmay said he plans to use a committee of pitchers in the game, including junior Josh Moody and freshman Alex Blackford. Extra bases
ASU hit 11 home runs in its past four games.
After turning five double plays in a 10-4 win over Washington on Sunday, tying a school record, the Sun Devils recorded three more twin killers on Tuesday, including one of the “strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out” variety after an athletic block of a ball in the dirt by Barnes.
Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu
