Baseball sweeps season series with Arizona

The No. 2 Arizona State University baseball team completed a season sweep of Arizona with a 9-3 victory on Wednesday in Tucson. ASU improves to 42-11 overall with the victory. The Pac-10 champion Sun Devils went 5-0 this season against the Wildcats, the first time they have swept the season series since 2003 and the first sweep of more than three games since 1987.

Riccio Torrez went 3-for-4 and drove in four runs, including hitting his sixth home run of the season, to lead the Sun Devil offense. It was his second home run in two games at Arizona's Sancet Stadium this year, after he hit a grand slam in a 20-3 victory over the Wildcats on April 29.

Kole Calhoun also had three hits, while Drew Maggi had two hits and two stolen bases. That gave Maggi 17 stolen bases on the season, surpassing Barry Bonds, Steve Garrabrants and Mike Kelly for the most ever by a Sun Devil freshman.

Jason Franzblau had a third consecutive quality start on the mound, going seven innings and allowing just six hits and one unearned run with four strikeouts and no walks to earn the win and improve to 3-2 on the season.

The Sun Devils got on the board first with three runs in the third. After the first two batters were retired, Maggi and Jason Kipnis both singled, with Maggi scoring on a wild pitch, and then Carlos Ramirez and Calhoun walked before Riccio Torrez drove in two with a single to left.

ASU got another run in the fourth on an RBI single by Maggi, and the Devils would then add three more in the fifth as Calhoun ripped an RBI triple down the right field line and Torrez followed with a two-run homer to left. They scored two more in the sixth on RBI singles by Johnny Ruettiger and Matt Newman.

Arizona scored a run in the sixth off Franzblau and single runs in the eighth and ninth innings off Newman, but Mitchell Lambson came on from the bullpen to get the final three outs in the ninth and secure the victory.

The Sun Devils return home to conclude the regular season for a three-game Pac-10 series with UCLA beginning Friday.