PHOENIX – It was another day and another bomb for Hunter Bishop as his three-run home run in the second inning contributed to No. 23 Sun Devil Baseball's 11-6 victory over Xavier on Sunday afternoon to sweep the Musketeers at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
RJ Dabovich picked up the win in his third quality start in a row, as he allowed just one earned run, five hits and three walks while striking out six batters in 6.1 innings. Dabovich moved to 4-0 on the season with all four wins coming on Sundays.
Bishop was 3-for-5 while matching his career-high with five RBIs and his Pac-12-leading eighth home run of the season. The effort capped off an incredible week for the junior, who slugged 1.313 over four games with three homers, a triple and a double. Bishop bat .563 over the four victories on 9-of-16 hitting while he also added an incredible nine runs and nine RBIs in the process with 11 putouts in center field for good measure defensively.
Erik Tolman, who pitched three innings perfect innings in relief last night, earned his first career start as a hitter and was exception on 3-of-3 hitting, a hit by pitch, two runs and an RBI as the team's designated hitter.
The Sun Devils extended their season opening streak to 15-0, the fourth-best streak to open a season in program history behind 2010 (24-0), 1961 (21-0), and 2008 (19-0).
Xavier jumped out to a 1-0 lead, their first and only lead of the series, after a solo home run to right field in the second inning.
With two runners on base and two outs in the third inning, Bishop hit a three-run opposite field homer to put the Sun Devils up 3-1. That home run was his eighth of the year and third of the series, hitting one in every game against Xavier.
Arizona State scored two more runs in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 5-1 over the Musketeers. Tolman knocked the first RBI of his career in the frame while Trevor Hauver recorded one of his two RBIs with a a sac fly.
Dabovich settled in nicely after the home run in the second, allowed just one hit on the next 14 batters he faced before a fielding blunder in the top of the fifth extended what should have been the end of the inning. Xavier capitalized with a pair of RBI hits for two unearned runs to climb back within 5-3.
ASU benefitted from a failed pickoff attempt by the Xavier pitcher and scored their sixth run of the game in the sixth inning. The team got another run in later off an RBI single from Hauver to go ahead 7-3.
After loading up the bases with no outs in the eighth inning, Brady Corrigan struck out the next two batters and retired the last one on a groundout to come out the inning unscathed.
Corrigan finished the relief effort with 1.1 innings pitched with no runs allowed on one hit and three strikeouts.
Arizona State tagged on four more runs in the eighth inning to reach double-digits, paced by a two-RBI Bishop single. It was the ninth time in 15 games that ASU has reached double digit scoring this season.
Xavier made the box score a bit more respectable with a three-run top of the ninth, but Spencer Torkelson snagged a line drive over at first for the final out of the game and the 15thwin of the Sun Devil season.
The 15-0 Sun Devils are back at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Wednesday for a midweek tilt versus New Mexico State at 6:30 p.m. Arizona time. The game will be streamed on ASU Live Stream-2.
RJ Dabovich picked up the win in his third quality start in a row, as he allowed just one earned run, five hits and three walks while striking out six batters in 6.1 innings. Dabovich moved to 4-0 on the season with all four wins coming on Sundays.
Bishop was 3-for-5 while matching his career-high with five RBIs and his Pac-12-leading eighth home run of the season. The effort capped off an incredible week for the junior, who slugged 1.313 over four games with three homers, a triple and a double. Bishop bat .563 over the four victories on 9-of-16 hitting while he also added an incredible nine runs and nine RBIs in the process with 11 putouts in center field for good measure defensively.
Erik Tolman, who pitched three innings perfect innings in relief last night, earned his first career start as a hitter and was exception on 3-of-3 hitting, a hit by pitch, two runs and an RBI as the team's designated hitter.
The Sun Devils extended their season opening streak to 15-0, the fourth-best streak to open a season in program history behind 2010 (24-0), 1961 (21-0), and 2008 (19-0).
Xavier jumped out to a 1-0 lead, their first and only lead of the series, after a solo home run to right field in the second inning.
With two runners on base and two outs in the third inning, Bishop hit a three-run opposite field homer to put the Sun Devils up 3-1. That home run was his eighth of the year and third of the series, hitting one in every game against Xavier.
Arizona State scored two more runs in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 5-1 over the Musketeers. Tolman knocked the first RBI of his career in the frame while Trevor Hauver recorded one of his two RBIs with a a sac fly.
Dabovich settled in nicely after the home run in the second, allowed just one hit on the next 14 batters he faced before a fielding blunder in the top of the fifth extended what should have been the end of the inning. Xavier capitalized with a pair of RBI hits for two unearned runs to climb back within 5-3.
ASU benefitted from a failed pickoff attempt by the Xavier pitcher and scored their sixth run of the game in the sixth inning. The team got another run in later off an RBI single from Hauver to go ahead 7-3.
After loading up the bases with no outs in the eighth inning, Brady Corrigan struck out the next two batters and retired the last one on a groundout to come out the inning unscathed.
Corrigan finished the relief effort with 1.1 innings pitched with no runs allowed on one hit and three strikeouts.
Arizona State tagged on four more runs in the eighth inning to reach double-digits, paced by a two-RBI Bishop single. It was the ninth time in 15 games that ASU has reached double digit scoring this season.
Xavier made the box score a bit more respectable with a three-run top of the ninth, but Spencer Torkelson snagged a line drive over at first for the final out of the game and the 15thwin of the Sun Devil season.
The 15-0 Sun Devils are back at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Wednesday for a midweek tilt versus New Mexico State at 6:30 p.m. Arizona time. The game will be streamed on ASU Live Stream-2.