Baseball slugs past Hawai'i
Jordan Swagerty allowed just one run in his first career start on the mound and the No. 1 Arizona State University baseball team had back-to-back seven-run innings in a 17-2 win over #20 Hawai'i on Tuesday in front of 2,824 fans at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The Sun Devils improved to 29-8 on the season with the victory.
Swagerty earned the first win of his ASU career by going seven innings and giving up just five hits with six strikeouts and no walks. He moved to 1-1 on the season with the win. Jason Franzblau, Kyle Brule, Jake Borup and Jeeter Ishida combined to pitch the final two innings out of the bullpen.
After the Rainbows took a 1-0 lead in the fourth, the Sun Devils responded by manufacturing three runs in the fifth. Jared McDonald and Kole Calhoun drew back-to-back walks to start the inning, Raoul Torrez bunted them over and Zack MacPhee brought both men in with a single to left. MacPhee then advanced to third on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt, and Drew Maggi drove him with a sacrifice fly.
ASU then took command with seven runs each in the seventh and eighth innings, including home runs by Carlos Ramirez, Riccio Torrez, MacPhee and Jason Kipnis, a two-run triple by McDonald and an RBI double by Johnny Ruettiger.
MacPhee was 3-for-5 with four RBI to lead the offense, while Kipnis and Riccio Torrez also had three RBI each. The Sun Devils had nine extra-base hits in the game, with the four home runs, triples by McDonald, Drew Maggi and Austin Barnes and doubles by Ruettiger and Matt Newman, and they also drew 10 walks.
The Sun Devils return to Pac-10 action on Friday, as they begin a three-game series at California with first pitch scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at Evans Diamond.