Blair's pitching lifts baseball to victory over Cal State Fullerton


A stellar starting pitching performance from Seth Blair and Zack MacPhee's first career home run lifted the No. 3 Arizona State University baseball team to a 3-1 victory over top-ranked Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday in front of a crowd of 3,489 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The Sun Devils improved to 20-5 on the season with the win in the second game of the DeMarini West Coast Challenge.

Blair improved to 3-1 on the season, allowing just four hits and one unearned run with three strikeouts and no walks over seven innings. Josh Spence earned his first career save, coming on from the bullpen to throw two shutout innings and finish off the win.

MacPhee's two-run homer in the sixth provided the winning margin for the Sun Devils. Raoul Torrez and Andy Workman had two hits each, and Matt Newman had an RBI double in the win.

Cal State Fullerton got on the board first, when first baseman Jared Clark had an RBI single in the fourth, but ASU tied the game in the fifth on Newman's double off the left field wall.

In the sixth inning, Workman walked to lead off the inning, and then three batters later, MacPhee hit a line drive home run just over the left field wall to give ASU its first lead.

The Titans put two runners on with one out in the ninth, but Spence got Nick Ramirez to fly out and Khris Davis to ground out to secure the victory.

The Sun Devils return to Pac-10 action on Friday, when they begin a three-game series at Washington. Friday's game will be at Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.