Feb. 13, 2005
SURPRISE, Ariz. (www.TheSunDevils.com) -- Gonzaga junior left-handed starting pitcher Patrick Donovan threw seven shutout innings to make a pair of unearned runs standup in a 2-0 upset of No. 12 Arizona State Sun Devils on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the Coca-Cola Spring Training Classic at Surprise Stadium.
Gonzaga improved to 3-3 overall with their first victory over the Sun Devils in 11 all-time meetings. Arizona State had its three-game win streak halted to fall to 6-4 on the season and 2-1 in tournament play.
The shutout comes nearly one year to the day when the Sun Devils had their NCAA record consecutive games scoring streak snapped at 506 games in a 6-0 loss to Oklahoma (2/15) at Surprise Stadium.
Donovan limited the normally potent ASU bats to only four hits and struck out three to improve to 1-1 on the season. After stranding the bases loaded in the second inning, Donovan did not allow a runner past first base in the rest of his outing. Sophomore left-hander Chris Albrecht earned the save with two scoreless innings.
Arizona State sophomore Zechry Zinicola (San Bernadino, Calif.) made his first start of the year and was saddled with the tough-luck loss. Zinicola gave up only three hits and two unearned runs in 4.1 innings. He struck out four and walked only one to fall to 2-1 on the season. Junior left-hander Brett Bordes (Mesa, Ariz.) dominated in his first relief appearance of the year with 4.2 scoreless innings. He scattered three hits and struck out three to keep ASU close.
"You have to give a lot of credit to their pitcher for throwing a good game in a big stadium," said ASU 11th year head coach Pat Murphy. "We didn't have many good at-bats and really spoiled two great pitching performances from (Zechry) Zinicola and (Brett) Bordes. Our pitching was really great all weekend and we just need to build off that as we have some really tough games coming up."
Gonzaga scored the only run it would need with an unearned run off Zinicola in the top of the fourth inning. Jeff Culpepper recorded a two-out single to left field, stole second base and then scored on a sun-ball misplayed by ASU freshman center fielder J.J. Sferra (Phoenix, Ariz.).
The Bulldogs added an insurance run in the fifth on a two-out single by second baseman Scott Campbell. The Zags second tally again went as an unearned run following a one-out error by second baseman Joe Persichina.
Persichina (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.) led the Sun Devils at the plate going 2-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to four games. Senior catcher Tuffy Gosewisch (Scottsdale, Ariz.) went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to a career-high tying eight games.
The Sun Devils hit the road for the next five games and begin a stretch of nine consecutive games against ranked opponents this Tuesday with a 4 p.m. game against rival Arizona in Tucson. ASU will take on No. 1 Tulane (3-0) in a three-game series this weekend in New Orleans.
Gonzaga 2, Arizona State 0 (Feb 13, 2005 at Surprise, Ariz.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Gonzaga............. 000 110 000 - 2 6 0 (3-3) Arizona State....... 000 000 000 - 0 4 3 (6-4) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitchers: Gonzaga - DONOVAN, P.; ALBRECHT, C.(8). Arizona State - Zinicola; Bordes, B.(5). Win-DONOVAN, P.(1-1) Save-ALBRECHT, C.(1) Loss-Zinicola(2-1) T-2:15 A-456
--Sun Devil Baseball--