Blair, Dorado Lead Devils Past Portland

The Arizona State Sun Devils continued their hot start to the season on Sunday afternoon in front of 2,476 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark by riding the arms of Seth Blair and Reyes Dorado and the continued stellar defense to a 5-2 win over the Portland Pilots.

The Devils jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a solo home run Kiel Roling off of Portland starter Ari Ronick. Mike Jones would homer to deep centerfield for his first career round tripper.

The 2-0 lead was all that Seth Blair would need. Blair made quick work of Pilot hitters, throwing just 50 pitches in his five innings of work. His only blemish was a solo home run by Danny Meier in the top of the 5th. Blair allowed three hits, walked none and struck out three to pick up his second win of the season.

ASU would build on their lead in the bottom of the seventh. Kiel Roling reached on an error by Pilot’s third baseman Kevin Armijo. After a Kipnis fly out to center, Petey Paramore singled up the middle. Ike Davis would start the scoring scorching a double into the right field corner plating Kiel Roling. Matt Newman ripped a single past a drawn in infield to score Paramore. After Newman was caught stealing second, Marcel Champagnie continued his hot start by doubling into the right field corner and scoring Davis to make it 5-1 ASU.

Reyes Dorado was summoned by head coach Pat Murphy to pitch the sixth inning and Dorado was untouchable. Dorado struck out nine of the 15 batters he faced in his 3 2/3 innings of work. Dorado’s only mistake was allowing a solo home run onto Rural Road off the bat of Chase Powell.

Dorado got the first two batters of the ninth inning before hitting Meier and falling behind 2-0 on pinch hitter Cort Carpenter. Murphy then gave the ball to closer Jason Jarvis who quickly took care of Carpenter, blowing three fastballs by him to end the game and pick up his second save.

Newman and Jones each had a pair of hits on the day, but the star of the tournament had to be Marcel Champagnie. The Devils’ shortstop hit .500 for the tournament and was a spark plug in the ASU lineup. Champagnie also made several breath taking plays at shortstop and has really picked up where Andrew Romine left off defensively last season.

The Devils return to the diamond at Packard Stadium on Tuesday for their first mid-week season of the year against the 7-1 New Mexico Lobos. The Lobos lost their first game of the season on Sunday, in extra innings against Texas State. First pitch is at 6:30 PM Tuesday night.