Franzblau's leads baseball to shutout victory over Winthrop

Jason Franzblau threw a complete game shutout to lead the No. 4 Arizona State University baseball team to a 5-0 win over Winthrop on Sunday in front of a crowd of 2,282 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The Sun Devils improved to 38-11 on the season after completing the sweep of the three-game series with the Eagles.

Franzblau scattered seven hits and one walk while striking out five to earn the win against his former team. Franzblau was at Winthrop from 2006-2007 before transferring to ASU last year. It was his fifth career complete game and second shutout, but this was his first of either kind as a Sun Devil, as he moved to 2-2 on the season.

Carlos Ramirez led the ASU offense, going 2-for-3 with two RBI and hitting his team-leading 15th home run of the season.

The Sun Devils scored in the first inning in all three games of this series, and for the second straight game, Ramirez and Kole Calhoun hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning that put ASU in front 2-0.

Zach Wilson would come through with a two-out RBI single in the fourth to extend the ASU lead, and the Devils would score two more in the seventh when Drew Maggi came home on a throwing error and Ramirez doubled to drive in Jason Kipnis.

That was more than enough support for Franzblau, who allowed just three Winthrop base runners to get into scoring position, with none of them ever reaching third base.

The Sun Devils will now return to Pac-10 Conference action next week, beginning a three-game series with Oregon on Friday at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. This is Oregon's first year of baseball since 1981, and it will be the first meeting between the Sun Devils and Ducks since 1974.