GAME 24: ARIZONA STATE 3, TITANS 1
From Arizona Republic
By Jonathan Frankel
TEMPE, Ariz. - Great pitching and power hitting prevented Arizona State from dropping its third consecutive game.
The third-ranked Sun Devils held off top-ranked Cal State-Fullerton for the 3-1 victory in front of 3,489 Wednesday night at Packard Stadium in the second half of a two-game set.
With the game tied 1-1 in the sixth inning, Zack MacPhee pulled a two-run home run over the left-field fence off Fullerton starter Kevin Rath for his first homer of the season.
ASU starting pitcher Seth Blair dazzled with seven innings of four-hit ball, allowing only one unearned run. The right-hander had three strikeouts and no walks and helped the Sun Devils improve to 20-5 on the season.
Left-hander Josh Spence worked the final two innings for the save.
"Needing two pitchers against Fullerton, and not give up an extra-base hit on a night like tonight in this offensive ballpark," ASU coach Pat Murphy said. "This stadium is not used to this 3-1 stuff."
Fullerton got on the board first in the fourth inning.
Christian Colon led off with a single to left field, and moved to second base when ASU first baseman Riccio Torrez couldn't handle a pickoff throw from Blair. Jared Clark knocked Colon in with an RBI single to right.
ASU struck back with a run in the fifth. Drew Maggi started it with an infield single, and came around to third on a wild pith and sacrifice bunt to set the table for Matt Newman, who lined an RBI double to the left-field warning track.
"Newman had some good at-bats," Murphy said. "It takes something to get you out of that rut. He was kind of in a rut there. Newman put a good swing on the ball. . . . It was a turning point."
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