Baseball advances to Super Regional


Kole Calhoun named Tempe Regional Most Outstanding Player

The No. 1 ASU baseball team defeated Hawai'i 8-4 on Sunday to win the Tempe Regional and advance to the Super Regional round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament. A crowd of 3,123 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark saw the Sun Devils improve to 50-8 on the season with the win. It is the second straight and 18th overall 50-win season for ASU.

Kole Calhoun had two hits, including a solo home run, his 15th of the season and third in the three games of the Regional, and he earned Tempe Regional Most Outstanding Player. Drew Maggi added two hits, including the go-ahead two-run double in the fourth inning, Riccio Torrez and Andrew Aplin also had two hits each and Deven Marrero had a two-run home run.

Jake Borup went six innings, allowing six hits and four runs with three strikeouts and three walks, earning the win to improve to 11-1 on the season. Mitchell Lambson pitched two perfect innings out of the bullpen, striking out four, and Jordan Swagerty threw a scoreless ninth to finish off the victory.

The game went back and forth early on. Hawai'i scored a run in the first, but ASU scored two in the second. The Rainbows tied the game with a run in the top of the third, but Calhoun's solo homer in the bottom half of the inning put the Sun Devils on top 3-2.

Hawai'i left fielder Sean Montplaisir hit a two-run homer in the top of the fourth to give his team a 4-3 lead. The Devils answered again in the bottom half of the inning, as Raoul Torrez drew a leadoff walk and Aplin followed with a single, Austin Barnes then bunted both runners over and Maggi drove in two with a double to the left field corner.
Marrero's two-run homer in the fifth extended the lead to 7-4, and Zack MacPhee then capped off the scoring with an RBI single in the eighth.

Calhoun was joined on the Tempe Regional All-Tournament team by MacPhee, Marrero, Riccio Torrez, Seth Blair and Merrill Kelly of ASU, Jeffrey Van Doornum, Kolten Wong and David Freitas of Hawai'i, Mike Ferraro and A.J. Griffin of San Diego and Dan Buchholz of UW-Milwaukee.

The Sun Devils will host the winner of the Fayetteville Regional in Super Regional play beginning either Friday or Saturday at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. Arkansas and Washington State will play on Monday in the championship game of the Fayettville Regional.