SURPRISE, Ariz. - The Saint Mary's baseball team needed
extra innings to get the job done on Sunday.
In the end the Gaels (8-4) defeated No. 11 Arizona State (8-2) 4-3 in
the finale of the Coca-Cola College Baseball Classic in Surprise, Ariz. With the win the Gaels went 3-1 in the
tournament.
Chris Murphy led off the top of the 11 inning
with a triple to right center field.
Toby DeMello scored the game winning RBI hitting a fly ball to deep
right field to score Murphy on a sacrifice fly.
Patrick Keane (2-0) pitched 5.2 innings in relief to get his
second win of the season. The junior
righty was sharp, allowing just two hits with four strike outs while walking
five, three of them intentionally to earn the win.
Taking the loss for the Sun Devils was Baseball America
Pre-Season All-American Jake Barrett (0-1) who pitched two innings, allowing
two hits, one earned run with two strike outs and a walk. The triple to Murphy proving costly.
"I'm proud of the guys," said head coach Jedd Soto. "Every day it was a team effort. We needed
every guy on our roster to compete down here.
These student-athletes were relentless."
The rally in the 11th would never have happened
if not for a game saving double play started by Keane. In the bottom of the ninth Keane served up a
one out triple to Joey DeMichele. After
walking the bases loaded intentionally, Keane got ASU's designated hitter
Rouric Bridgewater to hit into the inning ending 1-2-3 double play.
The Gaels tied the game up in the top of the sixth inning
when Patrick Wisdom led off the inning with a double down the right field line. After stealing third, Wisdom scored on a base
hit by red-hot Troy Channing. Channing
advanced to third on a base hit by freshman Collin Ferguson who also had a
career-day. Kalfus knocked in Channing
with a sacrifice fly to right field to tie the game at three.
Channing was a perfect 4-for-4 on the day with two runs
scored and a run driven in. Ferguson
went 3-for-4 with a walk. Murphy finished
the day going 1-for-4 with a run scored and a run driven in.
Kyle Barraclough started the game for Saint Mary's, he went 5.1
innings pitched, allowing seven hits, three runs, all earned with six walks and
five strike outs. ASU countered with
Darin Gillies who went 4.0 innings, allowing three hits, one earned run, with
two walks and four strike outs.
The Sun Devils left 16 runners on base while the Gaels capitalized,
scoring four runs on 11 hits. SMC
improves to 7-1 when outhitting their opponent.
Saint Mary's returns to action facing yet another ranked
Pac-12 foe on Tuesday. The Gaels host
No.1 Stanford at 2:00 p.m. at the new Louis Guisto Field.