#1 ASU baseball sweeps Coca-Cola Classic with 5-2 win over Portland
The top-ranked Sun Devils finished out the 6th Annual Coca-Cola Classic in style, beating Portland 5-2 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark to complete the weekend 4-0. 2,476 fans saw ASU improve to 7-0 on the season thanks to home runs from Kiel Roling and Mike Jones, as well as superb pitching efforts from Seth Blair, Reyes Dorado and Jason Jarvis.
The Devils played long ball to jump out to an early lead, as solo blasts by Roling and Jones staked ASU starter Seth Blair to a 2-0 lead after four. The home run to deep center by Jones was his first career round-tripper.
The Pilots cut the lead to 2-1 after a solo shot by Danny Meier in the top of the fifth, but in the bottom of the fifth Arizona State scored three times to make it 5-1. Ike Davis got the scoring started by doubling home Kiel Roling, then a Matt Newman single brought home Petey Paramore. Marcel Champagnie finished the scoring with a double to right that scored Davis.
Blair lasted five innings, allowing only three hits and the one run to up his record to 2-0. He was relieved by Reyes Dorado, who was lights out for 3.2 innings. Dorado struck out nine of the 15 batters he faced and allowed only a solo homer to Chase Powell.
After getting the first two Portland batters out in the ninth, Dorado hit the next batter, which sent Pat Murphy out to summon closer Jason Jarvis. Jarvis struck out the only hitter he faced on three straight pitchers to pick up his second save of the season. Jarvis now has 13 career saves, tied for seventh most in school history.
Matt Newman and Mike Jones each had two hits for the Sun Devils in the victory. The three ASU pitchers limited the Pilots to only four hits.
Marcel Champagnie finished the tournament with a .500 batting average, going 8-16 with two doubles, two triple and six RBI. He also made several sparkling plays at shortstop.
Arizona State will take on New Mexico in a two game mid-week series beginning Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 from Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.