College Baseball 360 » Joey DeMichele http://collegebaseball360.com baseball news, college baseball stats, sean stires, pete lafleur, college world series video, college baseball podcast, Fri, 14 Feb 2025 21:33:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 Arizona State Continues To Roll http://collegebaseball360.com/arizona-state-continues-to-roll/ http://collegebaseball360.com/arizona-state-continues-to-roll/#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 13:19:58 +0000 http://collegebaseball360.com/?p=19826

Sun Devils Eye NCAA Return After Sweep Of Long Beach…

By CB360 Contributor Kevin Kennedy

The Arizona State baseball team continued to roll over the weekend with a sweep of  Long Beach State in a non-conference series  in Tempe.  The Sun Devils outscored the Dirt Bags by a combined total of 32 to 14 in the three-game series.

The Sun Devils, who were playing in their last non-conference games of the season, won for the 13th time in the last 15 games to improve to 35-11 overall.

Long Beach dropped to 23-22 overall. LBSU came into the weekend needing some resume building wins to boost their NCAA Tournament credentials.

Brady Rodgers

In the Sun Devils 6-3 win over the Dirtbags on Friday Devils ace pitcher sophomore Brady Rodgers dominated en route to picking up his 7th win of the season. Rodgers (7-2 2.92 ERA) went 7.1 innings allowing three runs on 8 hits while striking out five.

Rodgers seemed to get stronger as the night worn on before he was hit in the ankle by a come-backer off the bat of LBSU freshman catcher Royce Murai in the 8th. Rodgers allowed the next three hitters to reach after the Murai single. Prior to being hit in the leg Rodgers had retired 13 of the previous 14 Dirtbag hitters. The injury is not believed to be serious.

Long Beach rallied against ASU in the 8th cutting the deficit to 6-3. The Dirtbags had the tying run at the plate with two outs, but Devils junior LF Johnny Ruettiger made a spectacular sliding catch in the left center field gap off the bat of LBSU sophomore Matt Duffy to end the inning and the threat.

ASU struck first with a run in the bottom of the first leading off the inning with Ruettiger double, and a single by junior Zach MacPhee. Ruettiger scored on an error by Long Beach starter junior Andrew Gagnon (4-7, 2.73 ERA).

In Saturday’s win ASU jumped out early and were never threatened in the 9-2 win. ASU led 4-0 after three innings and 9-0 after five.

Arizona State starting pitcher Kramer Champlin (7-2 2.82 ERA) bounced back from his loss to Stanford last weekend pitching eight strong innings allowing two earned on eight hits, with seven strikeouts. Champlin didn’t allow a run until the 8th inning.

Joey DeMichele

Joey DeMichele continued his offensive tear with hit second five hit game of the season going 5-for-5 with a double and 3 RBIs. Junior DH Austin Barnes was 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs. DeMichele (.406 average), and Barnes (.362) currently rank number one, and five respectively in the Pac-10 in hitting.

ASU got 14 hits in Saturday’s win with MacPhee, and Newman having multiple hit games for the second straight night. Duffy was the offensive leader for LBSU going 3-for-4 with a double, and 2 RBIs.

Long Beach’s pitching staff struggled with starter junior Branden Pinder (3-5 5.53 ERA) lasting just three innings allowing 4 runs (3 earned). Junior Matt Johnson relieved Pinder and he allowed five earned in just two innings.

In the series finale ASU exploded for its highest scoring output of the season in there 17-9 win. The Devils broke the game wide open with a six run 5th pushing their lead to 11-2.

The Dirtbags scored six runs in the 9th inning to make the final score look closer than the game really was.

Andy Workman led the offensive charge going 4-for-5 with 7 RBIs, a double, and two HRs. DeMichele was 2-for-5 on Sunday, he was 9-for-14 (.643) in the series. Zach Wilson was 3-for-4, and MacPhee was 2-for-3 in the win.

MacPhee was 6-for-12 in the series as the reigning Pac-10 Player of the Year raised his average from .270 to .286. MacPhee hit .398 in 2010.

Long Beach starter freshman Ryan Strufing (3-2 3.92 ERA) took the loss allowing eight runs (five earned) in four innings. Freshman Kyle Friedrichs went two innings in relief of Strufing allowing five runs.

The Dirtbags fielders were no help to the team’s pitchers committing four errors, leading to five unearned runs.

ASU has been with out sophomore shortstop Deven Marrero since May 1 because of an ankle injury. Riccio Torrez was also out the last two games of the series because of injury. Neither injury is believed to be serious.

Currently ASU is second in the Pac-10 in hitting with a (.312), on base percentage (.383), runs scored (.299), hits (497), and RBIs (269). The pitching staff is fifth in the conference with a team ERA of 3.17.

The Devils sit in second place in the Pac-10 with three weekends left in the conference schedule. ASU is one game back of conference leader Oregon State. The Beavers hold the tiebreaker over ASU after sweeping the Sun Devils in Corvallis last month.

Arizona State, which went 6-2 in eight games played in ten days, now travels to USC next weekend followed by a series at Washington. The Sun Devils finish their season at home vs. UCLA.

ASU remains eligible for the NCAA Tournament, because the NCAA appeal process continues. The school is set to have its appeal heard a couple of weeks before the NCAA Tournament selections are made May 30, and it is unlikely the appeals committee will have a ruling before the 30th.

If ASU remains eligible and continues to play well down the stretch it could find itself in position not only to be in the tournament, but also as one of the Top-8 National Seeds.

Despite not picking up any wins this weekend, Long Beach State still has some chances for some quality resume wins down the stretch.  They travel to Cal State Fullerton next weekend, and finish the year at UC Irvine.

They also have a Big West series at home vs. Cal State Northridge, and non-conference home games vs. UCLA, and Pepperdine.

(Front page photo courtesy Arizona State)

]]> http://collegebaseball360.com/arizona-state-continues-to-roll/feed/ 0 Arizona State Gets Back On Track http://collegebaseball360.com/arizona-state-gets-back-on-track/ http://collegebaseball360.com/arizona-state-gets-back-on-track/#comments Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:01:09 +0000 http://collegebaseball360.com/?p=18742

Sweeps WSU After Being Swept By OSU…

By CB360 Contributor Kevin Kennedy

Tenth ranked Arizona State bounced back from last weekend’s sweep at Oregon State with a three game sweep of Washington State this past weekend in Tempe. ASU defeated the Cougars 3-1, 8-2, and 10-4 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday respectively.

Last weekend in Corvallis the Sun Devils were swept by a Pac-10 team for the first time since 1999 when they lost all three games to the Beavers. It was also the first time ASU had been swept by any opponent since 2005.

Brady Rodgers

ASU improved to 25-9 and 8-4 in the Pac-10, while Washington St. continued to struggle in conference action falling to 2-10 in the Pac-10 with a 14-17 overall record.

ASU won in a pitchers duel between sophomore Brady Rodgers, and WSU junior Adam Conley on Friday night. Rodgers pitched 6.1 innings allowing an earned run on five hits. Three ASU relievers pitched the final 2.1 innings allowing just one hit while striking out four. Junior Mitchell Lambson, who took the loss in last Saturday’s game against the Beavers, earned the save on Friday by striking out the side in order.

Rodgers continues to solidify his spot as the Sun Devils ace. He improved to 5-2 with a 2.92 ERA. Through seven appearances Rodgers has a 30 to 1 strike out to walk ratio.

On Friday the Sun Devils had trouble figuring out the Cougar’s ace. Conley pitched a complete game limiting the Sun Devils to seven hits while allowing only one earned run while striking out seven. Conley dropped to 4-4 with the tough loss.

ASU scored all three of its runs in the 5th off Conley. The two deciding runs came when WSU junior 2nd basemen Tommy Richards committed an error by allowing a two out ground ball to go though his legs.

The Sun Devils were without sophomore starting SS Deven Marrero for the first two games because of a back injury. The injury forced junior Riccio Torrez to move from 3B to SS, and sophomore Joey DeMichele moved into the starting line-up going to 3B.

DeMichele made two nice plays at third in Friday’s win, and followed up the defensive effort with a 3-4, 3 RBI night on Saturday. Marrero returned to SS on Sunday and went 1-4.

Chad Arnold

The Devils had more offensive success in the last two games of the series. They chased WSU’s Saturday starter, senior Chad Arnold, after he allowed seven runs in 3.1 innings. ASU led 7-1 after just four innings. Besides DeMichele junior 1B Zach Wilson led ASU by going 3-3.

Junior Kramer Champlin went 6.1 innings for the win improving to 5-1 with a 3.20 ERA in nine starts. Champlin allowed two earned on eight hits while striking out five.

ASU struck early again in Sunday’s 10-4 win. ASU jumped out to a 4-0 lead after five innings, and put the game away with a five run sixth inning, which gave the Devils a 9-2 lead. DeMichele has his second consecutive three hit game going 3-5 as the starting DH. Senior RF Matt Newman, sophomore CF Andrew Aplin, and Torrez were a combined 6-for-13 with five RBIs in Sunday’s victory.

For the second consecutive game WSU’s starter failed to get through five innings going 4.2 innings and falling to 3-4 with the loss. Sophomore Jake Barrett got the victory for the Devils improving to 4-3 by going 5.2 innings.

This weekend ASU continued to be aggressive on the base paths. The Sun Devils stole seven bases in the series. For the season has 58 stolen bases on 86 attempts – a 67% success rate.

Washington State continues to be one of the bigger disappointments in the conference through the first four weeks of conference play. There were high expectations in Pullman coming into this season after the team came within a game of the Super Regional’s in 2010. The Cougars are currently last in the Pac-10 – 7.5 games behind first place Oregon State. WSU has now dropped seven of its last eight Pac-10 games.

The Cougars need to play well the last month plus of the season to reach the tournament again. The Cougars have played one of the tougher conference schedules, with games at #16 Cal, vs. #17 Stanford, and vs. #23 UCLA. The schedule does not get any easier next weekend when they visit #9 Oregon State. WSU will have played the top four teams in the conference standings after the OSU series.

Following OSU, the Cougars do play three of their last four conference series at home.

The Sun Devils are going for a fourth straight conference title, and currently sit 1.5 games behind conference leader Oregon State, three games back in the loss column. The Beavers hold the tiebreaker over ASU with last weekend’s sweep.

Next weekend the Devils travel to northern California to play at Cal beginning on Thursday. The Bears are 9-3 in the Pac-10, just one-half game behind OSU.

The Sun Devils currently could be eligible for the NCAA Tournament, because they are appealing the NCAA’s postseason ban. The ban would not go into effect until the appeals process is over.

ASU has a decent shot to make the tournament because they are not set to have their case heard until May 14, about two weeks before the tournament field is selected. It is unlikely that the appeals committee will make a ruling by the time the 2011 tournament beings.

Dugouthats.com has officially licensed 2010 College World Series memorabilia year- round!

Click this link to find out how to save 50-75% on college baseball caps and 2010 College World Series gear and memorabilia at Dugouthats.com!!

]]> http://collegebaseball360.com/arizona-state-gets-back-on-track/feed/ 0