Baseball uses strong pitching to beat Ducks 3-1

Thanks to magnificent start by Kramer Champlin, Arizona State beat the Oregon Ducks 3-1on Saturday night to take the second game of the three-game weekend series. Champlin (4-1) was dominant for 8 innings, allowing only five hits and two runs to earn the victory and help ASU improve to 20-6 on the year, 4-1 in Pac-10 play.

The Devils would strike first in the bottom of the third inning when Zack MacPhee hit a groundball just out of the reach of the shortstop to drive in Andrew Aplin from third base. ASU would add one more run in the inning on a Riccio Torrez single past the shortstop to drive in MacPhee from second base.

The Ducks would cut into the Devils lead in the top of the seventh when Shawn Peterson hit a sacrifice fly to right, which would allow Aaron Jones to tag from third base and score on the play.

ASU would get the run back in the bottom of the seventh when Andrew Aplin stepped to the plate. With the bases empty, Aplin drove the ball over the right field fence for his first career home run. That made it 3-1 Devils.

The story of the game for ASU was their pitching, as Champlin struck out seven and scattered five hits before giving the way to Mitchell Lambson. Lambson struck out one in his inning of work to record his fourth save on the year and secure the win for the Sun Devils.

Johnny Ruettiger and Zack MacPhee were both 2-3, while Andrew Aplin was 2-3 with two RBI and two runs scored.

The Devils and Ducks will conclude their weekend series by playing game three on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. from Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.