May 26, 2012
GAMETRACKER ONLINE: SUNDAY
PHOTO GALLERY - All 100 Major League Players
Fans still have time to vote for the Arizona State All-MLB Team on Twitter. Tweet @ASU_Baseball your top Sun Devil baseball players who went on to play in the Major Leagues. The votes will be tallied and a team will be released next week.
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Pac-12 Baseball Standings as of May 26 games
Oregon, 19-10
Arizona, 19-10
UCLA, 19-10
Arizona State, 18-11 (1 GB)
Stanford, 17-12 (2 GB)
TUCSON, Ariz. - Right-hander Trevor Williams became the only 12-game winner in the Pac-12 this season after leading the 16th-ranked Arizona State baseball team to a 9-7 win over 13th-ranked Arizona on Saturday night before 5,677 fans at Hi-Corbett Field in Tucson, Ariz.
With tonight's win, the Sun Devils (36-19, 18-11) moved into second place in the Pac-12 standings and are one game back from first place, where there is a three-way tie between Oregon, Arizona and UCLA.
Andrew Aplin went 4-for-6 with three RBI and three runs scored, including a three-run homer, Deven Marrero added a trio of hits and an RBI, and Joey DeMichele collected two RBI to pace ASU's 13-hit offensive explosion.
Williams (12-2) picked up his conference-leading 12th win after allowing four earned runs on 10 hits while striking out four in eight innings. He finished the season with a 2.05 ERA with 25 earned runs on 90 hits in 109.2 innings pitched. He struck out 59 and walked 13.
Right-hander Jake Barrett took the mound in the ninth inning and conceded a double and a single to the first two batters he faced, but struck out the final batter of the game to preserve the win. A wild pitch by Barrett scored the lead runner and after inducing a popup and a groundout, he walked two straight batters to load the bases. A throwing error by Michael Benjamin brought home another Arizona run and put a Wildcat on second and third, before Barrett closed it out.
ASU fired off four consecutive hits, including a trio of doubles, to start the first inning and jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind a bases-clearing two-run double by DeMichele, an RBI double by Abe Ruiz and an RBI single by Beau Maggi. All nine batters came to the plate as the top four Sun Devils in the lineup each recorded a hit and scored a run. Aplin started things off with a double to right field and Marrero followed with a bunt single before DeMichele, Ruiz and Maggi lit up the scoreboard.
The Wildcats (37-17, 19-10) answered with one run in both the bottom of the first and third innings to cut ASU's lead in half, 4-2. They scored on an RBI groundout and an RBI triple, respectively.
Aplin hit a three-run homer over the right-field fence in the fourth inning to extend the Devils' advantage, 7-2. Nathaniel Causey and Kasey Coffman opened the frame with back-to-back singles, bringing Aplin to the plate with no outs. It was his sixth home run of the season after hitting one in his past two seasons.
Seth Mejias-Brean led off the fourth inning with a single and rounded the bases three batters later on an RBI double by Riley Moore. An RBI single in the next at-bat scored Moore to bring Arizona within three, 7-4.
Marrero's RBI single in the fifth inning drove home Coffman, who reached base on a hit by pitch and advanced to third on an Aplin single, and extended the Sun Devils' lead to four in the fifth inning.
A walk and a throwing error by Williams allowed UA to score a run in the sixth inning, but Aplin doubled in the ninth inning, stole third and crossed the plate on a wild pitch to put ASU ahead by four going into the bottom of the ninth.
UA starting right-hander Konner Wade (7-3) was pulled after giving up a pair of singles to start the fourth inning and took the loss. He finished the game with six runs on seven hits in three innings pitched.
The Sun Devils close out the 2012 season on Sunday with a 12 p.m. game against Arizona at Hi-Corbett Field in Tucson. Sun Devil Sports Network will broadcast the game live on the Fan AM 1060, and live, up-to-the-minute stats will also be available online through gametracker, which can be accessed on the baseball weekly release on the thesundevils.com or under the online baseball schedule. The game will also be webcast by the University of Arizona, available on arizonawildcats.com, to all-access subscribers, which requires a paid subscription.
Sunday's projected pitching matchup:
ASU - RHP Alex Blackford (1-3, 5.57)
Arizona - RHP James Farris (6-3, 4.22)
State Farm Territorial Cup Series:
This weekend marks the final three games of the five-game State Farm Territorial Cup Series between the two schools. The Sun Devils and Wildcats split the first two contests at Packard Stadium. Arizona is currently atop the standings by six points, 11.5-5.5, with just three baseball games remaining in the State Farm Territorial Cup schedule. Check out the history and news, and interact with fellow fans on www.territorialcupseries.com.
Game notes: Six different Sun Devils were hit by a pitch...Ruiz stole his first base of the season in the top of the eighth inning...Aplin's home run was just the 13th hit at Hi-Corbett Field in 34 games this season...the Wildcats used three relievers over the final six innings.