April 9, 2000
ASU's Mitch Jones hit two homeruns to bring his season total to 21 as the fourth-ranked Sun Devils held on for the 8-7 win over Oregon State this afternoon at Packard Stadium. Arizona State improve to 30-9 on the year, 6-3 in conference action while Oregon State falls to 17-17, 1-5 in Pac-10 play.
The Sun Devils won the series taking two out of three games on the weekend.
The Beavers once again jumped out to an early lead scoring a run off of starter Drew Friedberg in the top of the first inning. The Sun Devils would counter with three in the bottom of the second to take the lead.
Mitch Jones homered to centerfield to lead off the inning. After Mike Lopez was walked by starter Mark Newell, Jeff Phelps tripled down the rightfield line, scoring Lopez. Phelps then scored on a groundout by Brooks Conrad.
Jones hit his 21st homerun of the season in the fifth inning off of reliever Stephen Copeland to put the Devils ahead 7-4. Jones' 21 homeruns ties for sixth in a single-season at ASU. The single-season homerun record is 25 held by Bob Horner (1978).
Picking up his fourth win was middle reliever Franco Pezely (4-2) who pitched 3.0 innings allowing three runs on five hits with four strikeouts. Eric Doble closed out the game going 4.0 innings with three runs on six hits and six strikeouts for his fifth save.
Taking the loss for the Beavers was starter Mark Newell (3-4) who lasted only 2.0 innings allowing five runs on four hits with two walks and a strikeout.
For the Sun Devils, Mitch Jones went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored. Casey Myers had a 2-for-5 day at the plate with two RBI and a run scored. Jeff Phelps also contributed two hits to the ASU cause. Mike Lopez went 1-for-2 with a run scored.
Andy Jarvis and Zach Gordon each hit a homerun for the Beavers with Gordon collecting three RBI on the afternoon. Third baseman Brian Barden scored three runs for OSU. Josh Carter had a 2-for-4 day at the plate as well.
ASU is now in a three-way tie for second place in the conference race with Stanford and USC. UCLA leads the Pac-10 with an 8-1 record.
The Sun Devils travel to Pullman next weekend for a three-game series with Washington State beginning on Friday, April 14.