Baseball completes series sweep of USC with 8-1 win

Three players hit a home run and five pitchers allowed a total of four hits as the 21st-ranked Arizona State baseball team completed the series sweep over USC with an 8-1 win on Sunday at Packard Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

James McDonald and Rouric Bridgewater each hit a home run in the second inning, and Abe Ruiz added a homer in the eighth frame as the Sun Devils (23-13, 9-6) tallied eight runs on 12 hits. Right-hander Darin Gillies (1-3) recorded his first career win after tying his career-high with five innings pitched. He allowed one unearned run on three hits and one walk, and struck out a pair.

Right-handers Joseph Lopez and Robert Ravago, and left-hander Matt Dunbar combined to allow one hit and no walks in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Right-hander Jake Barrett punctuated a perfect ninth frame with a called strikeout on the final batter.  

The Trojans (19-4, 5-9) took the early one-run lead in the top of the second inning on an RBI sacrifice bunt after the runner got into scoring position on an error by Gillies. ASU responded in the bottom of the second with four runs to claim the lead, 4-1. McDonald opened the frame with his first career home run and Bridgewater followed with a homer of his own two batters later. Deven Marrero drove Drew Stankiewicz home from third on an RBI single and Kasey Coffman scored on a wild pitch as the Devils batted around in the inning.

Three straight hits to start the third inning, highlighted by a two-run single from Bridgewater and a double from Max Rossiter, gave ASU the five-run advantage, 6-1. Ruiz led off the eighth frame with a solo home run and Bridgewater scored McDonald, who doubled to left field, with an RBI sacrifice fly as the Devils tacked on a pair of insurance runs. Right-hander Ben Mount (1-4) earned the loss after giving up four runs, including three earned, on five hits in just 1 1/3 innings.

The Sun Devils are hosting Arizona at 6:30 p.m., April 17, at Packard Stadium for the first State Farm Territorial Cup Series baseball game of the season. It will also be the first of two "Cory Hahn Bucket Nights" that will be held this year at Packard Stadium where we will have a volunteer for every section passing buckets for donations to Cory's fund. The next one will also take place against Arizona on May 16 at Packard Stadium. Donations will go to the Cory Hahn Fund. Tim Healey and Seth Dhaenens will have the call on The Fan AM 1060 and FoxSportsArizona.com will stream it live online.

Game notes: ASU has won 11 straight home games against the Trojans dating back to 2006…for the first time since 1985, the ASU football, men’s basketball and baseball teams swept the games versus USC in Tempe…ASU allowed USC to score just two runs over the weekend, which is the lowest total for a conference series since Tim Esmay became head coach and is tied for the fewest total in a conference series in school history - vs. Oregon May 15-17, 2009 (9-0, 10-2, 8-0); vs. UTEP 4/32-4/24, 1976 (21-0, 11-2, 20-0); vs. Arizona 5/2-5/3, 1969 (L 0-2, 11-0, 5-0)…ASU has swept the Trojans 12 times since 1979 (’12, ’10, ’08, ’98, ’90, ’88, ’85, ’83, ’82, ’81 (2), ’80)…Aplin has now reached base successfully in 18 consecutive games.