No. 1 ASU baseball beats Northern Colorado

Top ranked Arizona State improved to 19-0 on the season with a 13-3 victory over Northern Colorado in front a crowd of 2,805 in the opening game of the Bob Schaefer Memorial Tournament Thursday night.

Senior Tommy Rafferty got the victory and improved to 2-0 with 1.2 shutout innings out of the bullpen. Freshman Kyle Brule earned his first career save with four shutout innings, allowing three hits and striking out five.

Northern Colorado struck first off starter Jason Franzblau with a two-run double down the left field line by centerfielder Erik Hegstad in the second inning, but the Sun Devils answered with five runs in the third to erase the early deficit.

Sophomore Jason Kipnis drove in two with a double to left, and Kipnis then scored from third when junior Brett Wallace grounded into a double play. Junior Ike Davis then capped off the inning with a two-run homer to center, his seventh of the season.

The Bears cut the lead to two with a run in the fourth, but that would be all their offense for the game. The Sun Devils scored two more in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double by sophomore Raoul Torrez and an RBI single by Kipnis.

ASU added three runs in the sixth, as Torrez scored from third on a balk and Wallace hit his team-leading eighth home run of the season, a two-run shot to right center to make it 10-3.

The Sun Devils then scored three more in the eighth. Freshman Tillman Pugh scored when junior Hayden Moss was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and then junior Greg Bordes finished off the scoring with a two-run single to right.

Kipnis led the ASU offense with four hits and three RBI, Davis and Torrez had three hits each and juniors Petey Paramore and Marcel Champagnie added two hits apiece in the victory.

The Sun Devils host the Bears again Friday, with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.