No heroics needed Saturday.
After all the angst that surrounded Friday night’s walk-off victory, the ASU baseball team completely took the suspense out of Packard early Saturday.
The Sun Devils (41-16) pounced on Charlotte pitching to the tune of seven runs in the first four innings to cruise to a 16-1 victory over the 49ers (43-15) and move to within one victory of advancing to the Super Regionals.
“It was a great response today after struggling at the plate [Friday],” said ASU coach Tim Esmay, who was ejected during Friday’s game. “Our at-bats were so much better. We had a better approach and we tried to make it easier on our pitchers.”
Friday’s hero, sophomore designated hitter Joey DeMichele, got the Sun Devils on the board in the first inning with a RBI groundout scoring Johnny Ruettiger.
Two frames later, junior third baseman Riccio Torrez drove home Ruettiger again with the same play.
The game remained close until the fourth, when ASU junior catcher Xorge Carrillo launched a three-run homer to left field to break the score open.
“The past couple weeks I’ve been seeing the ball well,” said Carrillo, who went 5-for-6 on the day. “Now I’ve just got to keep it rolling.”
Torrez drove in two more runs later in the inning with a triple to put the Sun Devils up 7-0.
ASU plated two in both the fifth and seventh frames then scored four in the eighth highlighted by a Zach Wilson two-run home run.
The Sun Devils finished off their offensive explosion with a single run in the ninth scored by ASU junior outfielder and linebacker for the football team, Brandon Magee.
The team’s 19 hits in one game is a season high.
In the meantime, ASU junior pitcher Kramer Champlin was rolling along all night.
The transfer, in his postseason debut, threw seven innings of shutout baseball, allowing just one hit and striking out a career-high nine batters.
“I felt good,” Champlin said. “I was able to execute. It was just another game once I got on the mound.”
Relievers Josh McAlister and Josh Moody closed the game for the Sun Devils.
ASU now needs to win one more game to advance to the Super Regionals.
The team will face the winner of the Arkansas-Charlotte game Sunday. If the Sun Devils lose, there will be another game Monday to decide the regional champion.
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu
