ASU Baseball: Sun Devils Ready For Territorial Cup Rematch With Arizona
Arizona State found success last week with a series sweep of the University of Utah. The Sun Devils chalked up 5-4, 5-1 and 9-6 victories against the Utes to improve their record to 28-12-1, 11-7 Pac-12. Designated hitter RJ Ybarra’s four RBI helped ASU come back from an early deficit to wrap up the series on Sunday at Spring Mobile Ballpark in Salt Lake City. In Saturday’s game, starting left-hander Ryan Kellogg gave up just one run in eight innings for the Sun Devils. Kellogg (10-0) remained undefeated in his fifth start this season. He is just the sixth Sun Devil with at least 10 wins in his freshman season and is in a three-way tie with Kaipo Spenser (1994) and Doug Newstrom (1991) for fifth on ASU’s freshmen wins list.
Arizona State currently leads Arizona in the overall Territorial Cup standings, 7.5-6.5. The two schools’ baseball teams face each other five times this season, with two non-conference games in Tucson, and a three-game Pac-12 series at Packard Stadium May 17-19.
Arizona State is 187-121 all-time against the Wildcats and 19-11 against them in the past six seasons, including 9-6 in Tucson. The Sun Devils took two games from Arizona last season. ASU went 5-0 against the Wildcats in 2009, outscoring Arizona 63-19, including a 23-9 win at Packard Stadium and a 20-3 win in Tucson.
Arizona (28-14) has been on an upswing of late, completing a three-game sweep of Alabama State with an 18-3 victory last Sunday. The Wildcats scored a run in every single inning for the first time since March 2008 against Notre Dame. They also racked up 22 hits. Tyler Crawford went six innings, giving up six hits and three walks en route to his sixth career victory. Cody Moffett picked up his first career save by throwing three scoreless innings to secure the victory.
Arizona State hosts Stanford for a three-game Pac-12 series this weekend. Friday’s game begins at 7 p.m., while first pitch on Saturday is at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday is scheduled for at 12:30 p.m. start.