Feb. 22, 2009
TEMPE, Ariz. - Five pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout as the No. 6 Arizona State University baseball team finished off a four-game sweep of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with an 11-0 victory on Sunday in front of a crowd of 2,574 fans at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The win brings the Sun Devils to 4-0 on the season, and it was the 900th career Division I victory for head coach Pat Murphy.
Jason Franzblau started and allowed two hits over three innings. Freshman Mitchell Lambson came on from the bullpen for the middle three innings, allowing two hits and striking out four to earn the win in his collegiate debut. Matt Newman, Kole Calhoun and Jordan Swagerty then each pitched one shutout inning to finish off the win.
Carlos Ramirez led the offense with a two-run homer and an RBI triple, giving him the team lead with four home runs and nine RBI on the season. Jason Kipnis, Zack MacPhee and Jared McDonald also had two hits each in the victory.
The Sun Devils manufactured runs early, scoring a run on sacrifice flies by Newman and Riccio Torrez in the first two innings. They then broke the game open in the third with four runs, all coming with two outs in the inning. Ramirez hit a two-run homer, McDonald had an RBI double and Riccio Torrez drove in his second run of the game with a triple to left center.
ASU added three more runs in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Newman, an RBI triple by Ramirez and a Calhoun sacrifice fly. The Devils finished off the scoring in the seventh with a two-run double by Swagerty.
In the four-game series, ASU totaled 53 runs and hit .355 as a team, while the pitchers allowed just 16 hits and one earned run in 36 innings. The starting pitchers combined to go 21 innings while allowing just eight hits and striking out 24.
The Sun Devils return to action on Tuesday, when they host No. 10 Missouri at 6:30 p.m. at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.