#2 Arizona State Baseball Beats Grand Canyon. Looks Forward to this Weekend

Nathan McWhortor
Tuesday, March 09, 2010

The #2 Sun Devils beat the Grand Canyon University Antelopes 4-2 Tuesday night at a cold and windy Packard Stadium.

Neither team scored and there were only three hits in the game until the sixth inning when the Antelopes put two runs on the board. A single by Gavin Tucker, off Josh Moody, started the inning and was followed up by a fielding error by the Sun Devils and then a sacrifice bunt by third baseman Jay Green. After Moody struck out P.J. Garcia, Colin Courtland struck the first blow of the game with a 2 RBI single up the middle.

The Devils would come back in the bottom of the sixth with two runs of their own. Xorge Carrillio led off with a single to left but the Grand Canyon pitcher Cody Repenning quickly retired two Arizona State hitters. Repenning then lost control and walked Drew Maggi and Johnny Ruettiger before coach Dave Stapelton made a change and brought in LHP Justin McKee. McKee gave up a bases loaded 2 RBI single to Sun Devil captain and right fielder Kole Calhoun.

The Devils would tack on two more runs in the seventh off a Zach Wilson double and singles by Jimmy Patterson and Raoul Torrez.

Freshman RHP Brady Rodgers started for the Devils and five shutout innings. Josh Moody pitched two innings and gave up two unearned runs. Jake Barrett pitched in the eighth and struck-out all three batters he faced looking. Jordan Swagerty got the save and struck out the side in the ninth.

Sun Devil pitchers struck out 13 Grand Canyon batters on the night and retired the last six batters, and seven of the last nine, on strikeouts.

Jeff Urlaub started the game for Grand Canyon. Urlaub was a pitcher for Arizona State but transferred to University of Nevada Los Vegas before transferring to Grand Canyon. Urlaub gave up one hit, no runs, and one strike out in his one inning of work.

The Devils will take on the Auburn Tigers in a three game series this weekend. The Tigers are 9-2 on the season and will be playing their first games outside the state of Alabama.

There still has been no sign of ace pitcher Josh Spence, who has been trying to work out soreness in his arm sustained before the season started, and there is no word on when he will make his debut.