ASU Sun Devils Power Past B-CU in Game Two, 15-7

TEMPE, Arizona - The Wildcats came out swinging the bats big in the second game of the series with No. 16 Arizona State, setting off an early shootout with the Sun Devils, until the WildcaASts' bats grew cold in the middle innings, allowing ASU to pull away en route to a 15-7 win.

"I think we did a good job of coming right out of the box ready to go," Head Coach Jason Beverlin said. "Offensively, I thought we did a good job all day. We've just got to do a little bit better job of picking up the ball and doing the little things defensively, to make us a better baseball team."

Bethune-Cookman (0-2) demonstrated a solid approach from the first pitch, with Brandon Turner leading off with a walk, stealing second and reaching third on a pickoff error, quickly putting the Wildcats on the board as he crossed the plate on a drifting pulled Eros Modena double to left.

David Lee reached base on balls and was quickly cleared off by Matt Noble's two-run double to the center field fence, granting the Wildcats a 3-0 advantage.

Arizona State (2-0) came to the plate with the same mindset. Third baseman Michael Benjamin pushed the first pitch through the right side for a hard-hit single, setting the stage for ASU to tie on a pair of RBI singles and a sacrifice fly.

In the top of the second, Shaun McCarty reached and advanced on an error, scoring on another misfire from the ASU second baseman, James McDonald, which also allowed PJ Biocic on the bases. Biocic would score two batters later on a loop RBI single from David Lee, taking a 5-3 lead.

Trever Allen's two-run triple would again knot the score in the bottom of the second, but the Sun Devils gained the lead with Allen scoring on an infield groundout to push ASU on top 6-5.

The first two innings ran long, taking up 58 minutes of game time.

B-CU made the move to tie the score in the top of the third, as Eric Sams led off with a walk, coming home on Biocic's RBI double to outer left field, bringing the score to 6-6.

Though the Wildcats had very active bats against starter Adam McCreery, collecting six runs on four hits, and reaching base on balls four times, reliever Ryan Kellogg froze the Wildcats' offensive attack, holding B-CU without another score through the seventh inning.

"The second guy that they brought in did a really good job of attacking the strike zone and really made the difference for them," Beverlin noted.

In the meantime, ASU countered offensively in a big way, putting up a pair of runs in the bottom half of the third, four in the bottom of the fourth, and closing out with three final runs in the bottom of the sixth.

The Wildcats would score just once more, as Biocic again crossed the plate on Josh Johnson's RBI groundout in the eighth, sending the score to 15-7 in ASU's favor, where it would go final in the ninth, with ASU accumulating 19 hits, with assistance from four B-CU errors.

Making his first start of the season, Ali Simpson (0-1) takes the loss, opening a group of four newcomer B-CU pitchers to take mound on the day, namely Eric Sams, Lenny Martinez and Michael Austin.

Biocic led the Wildcats at the plate, batting 2-of-4 with two runs scored and one RBI. Noble went 2-of-5 with a pair of RBI.

The Wildcats return to action in the Arizona State series, wrapping up the three-game set on Sunday at Packard Stadium. The first pitch is slated for 12:30 p.m. MST.

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