Baseball falls to Sun Devils

Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona second baseman Erik Mattern completes a play to first baseman Kenny Corley during yesterday's loss to Arizona State at Sancet Field.

Left fielder Jason Hendricks commited his second error of the game when he over ran Andrew Beinbrink's RBI single. That led to a three-run sixth which allowed the Sun Devils to tie the game at five.

Tucson native Greg Halverson hit a home run to center field to break the game open as the Sun Devils went on to beat Arizona 11-7 and take two of three games from the Wildcats.

"Hitting the home run was something that I have wanted to do, and to hit my first of the year here, makes it even sweeter," Halverson said.

Arizona (23-14, 7-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division) took their first lead in the bottom of the first inning. After Erik Mattern grounded out to start the game, shortstop Jake Thrower doubled to left, then center fielder Deigo Rico singled in Thrower for a 1-0 Arizona lead.

The Wildcats led 3-0 after one, on RBI's from Jason Hendricks and Greg Clark. Arizona was cruising when Jake Thrower hit a two-run home run, his fourth of the year, over the left field fence to give the Wildcats a 5-0 lead. Thrower went 2 for 3 on the day with three RBI's.

ASU (21-12, 7-8) got on the board in the top of the fourth inning when Andrew Beinbrink drove in Mikel Moreno from third to make it 5-1.

The Sun Devils broke the game open in the top of the seventh, when they sent nine men to the plate and scored four runs on four hits to make it 9-5 Sun Devils.

"(We) have not gotten much respect this year, "ASU head coach Pat Murphy said. "After winning five of our last seven, this was encouraging coming in to Tucson to win two out of three," Murphy said.

"(We) just did not play well today and they did," UA head coach Jerry Stitt said. "The team played well for two innings but Arizona State played well for all nine, that was the difference today," Stitt said.

The day before, ASU closer Ryan Bradley's seventh-inning balk allowed Kenny Corley to score the go-ahead run, capping a four run seventh, as the Wildcats won 5-4. Omar Moraga and Erik Mattern opened the seventh inning with back-to-back doubles and were brought home on Jake Thrower's single to cut the deficit to one. Bradley entered the game and gave up consecutive singles to Corley and designated hitter Tom King.

Friday night, ASU junior left fielder Dan McKinley had four hits, including his ninth home run to lead Arizona State to a 8-6 victory over Arizona. For the Wildcats, junior left fielder Jason Hendricks homered and drove in four runs.