Andre Ethier, Jeremy West and Dennis Wyrick each had a pair of hits to
pace No. 16 Arizona State to a 9-4 win over 12th-ranked Cal State Fullerton
in a nonconference baseball game Saturday night at Hohokam Stadium.
The Titans had their five-game winning streak snapped and fell to 8-4
on the season, while ASU won for the first time in five games and improved
to 8-4.
Arizona State's J.J. Jackson (1-0), who relieved starter Ryan Schroyer
in the fifth, earned his first win while losing pitcher Darric Merrell
(2-1) had his shortest outing of the season, lasting just 2.1 innings
and surrendering five earned runs on six hits.
The game involved several heated exchanges and included the ejections
of Cal State Fullerton head coach George Horton and right fielder Kyle
Boyer by home plate umpire Kevin Daugherty.
The bright spot for the Titans was the pitching of Sean Martin, who rebounded
from a rocky outing at Stanford three weeks ago to retire all nine batters
he faced.
Fullerton grabbed a 1-0 first-inning lead when Chris Stringfellow drew
a leadoff walk, stole second and scored on an RBI-single by Boyer.
The Sun Devils took their first lead of the series in the second when
Wyrick doubled in West and later scored on
a sacrifice fly by Ian Kinsler. That cleared the bases with two outs,
but Merrell walked the next two batters and gave up a run-scoring single
to Doug Schutt to give the Sun Devils a 3-1 lead.
Arizona State chased Merrell from the game with two more runs in the third.
Dustin Pedroia double in a run and Jon Sheaffer – the first batter
to face relief pitcher Jeff Housman – drove in a run with a groundout.
West came up with a two-out RBI-single in the fourth to give the Sun Devils
a 6-1 lead.
Titan third baseman Richie Burgos' third error of the series led directly
to one of ASU's three runs in the fifth. Burgos overthrew first base after
fielding a bunt, allowing Dustin Pedroia to score from second base. A
two-run single by Rod Allen later in the inning upped the ASU edge to
9-1.
The Titans used a triple by Costa, a double by Burgos, a single by Kurt
Suzuki and three wild pitches by Jackson to score three runs in the eighth,
but it was too little too late for Fullerton.
The Titans and Sun Devils will meet in the rubber game of the three-game
set on Sunday at Hohokam Park at 1 p.m. MST.
