Baseball sweeps Ducks with 8-0 victory

Jake Barrett scattered four hits over his seven innings of work, leading Arizona State to an 8-0 victory over Oregon and a three-game weekend sweep. Barrett fanned six, while Zack MacPhee paced the Sun Devil offense with his three hits, helping ASU improve to 21-6 on the year, 5-1 in Pac-10 play.

The Devils would strike early and often against the Ducks. In the bottom of the first inning Joey DeMichele would hit a groundball to first base that drove in Zack MacPhee from third. Two batters later, Zach Wilson singled to left field driving in Riccio Torrez from second base to make it 2-0. Johnny Ruettiger's sacrifice fly in the second made it 3-0 after two.

The lead would increase to 5-0 in the bottom of the third. DeMichele hit a ball of the right field wall to drive in MacPhee from second base then DeMichele would come around to score two batters later when Matt Newman singled to left. The Devils would add three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on the strength of a MacPhee two-run double and a passed ball that scored Ruettiger from third.

The story of the game for ASU was their pitching, as Barrett, Alex Blackford and Trevor Williams kept the Ducks off the scoreboard. The Ducks could muster only three runs over the three-game series, while Sunday's shut out was the first of the season for the Devils. ASU pitching held the Ducks to only 18 hits over the entire series.

Matt Newman and Austin Barnes were 2-4, while Zack MacPhee was 3-4 with two RBI and two runs scored to lead the Sun Devil offense. The Sun Devils will travel to Tucson on Tuesday, April 5 for a non-conference game against the Arizona Wildcats. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at Sancet Stadium.