Aboites' Complete Game Keeps ASU Alive
6/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | General
FORT WORTH – Arizona State’s Jordan Aboites tossed a complete game, and did so when ASU needed it most, as the Sun Devils beat Oral Roberts, 4-1, in Saturday’s NCAA Fort Worth Regional elimination game at Lupton Stadium.
Aboites gave up 11 hits and just one run over his nine innings of work and made big pitches when he needed to, stranding eight runners in his final four innings of work.
The Rundown
Arizona State (34-22) manufactured a run in the top of the first inning as Gage Canning drew a leadoff walk, stole second base, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Brian Serven’s sacrifice fly.
Andrew Snow then doubled the lead in the fourth inning with a two-out RBI single to score Serven who roped a leadoff double into the left center gap.
The Sun Devils added insurance with a two-out rally in the fifth inning as David Greer’s single was followed by Serven’s fourth home run of the season to extend the lead to 4-0.
The fifth inning was the end of ORU starter Nick Wood’s (6-3) day as he threw 5.0 innings and allowed four runs on eight hits. Holden Cammack and Brady Womacks combined to toss 4.0 innings of scoreless relief to keep the Golden Eagles in the game.
ORU (38-21) broke through in the sixth inning for their first run of the regional as Noah Cummings delivered a two-out, RBI single to score Nick Roark. Roark reached on a fielder’s choice behind Chase Stafford’s leadoff single and moved to second on Matt Whatley’s two-out single.
Whatley, an All-Summit League catcher, finished the day 3-for-4, but was left on deck in the ninth inning as Aboites stranded runners at second and third with a game-ending strikeout, tying his season high of seven punch outs.
ORU has its biggest threat in the eighth inning when the Golden Eagles loaded the bases with one out thanks to a leadoff error and two one-out singles. However, Aboites got a strikeout and a ground out to squash the rally.
In all, ORU scored one run with 11 hits and stranded 10 runners on Saturday after stranding eight runners in their shutout loss to TCU on Friday night in which they had six hits.
Stats of the Game
3 – Arizona State’s Jordan Aboites complete-game effort on Saturday was his third straight start win and his third straight outing of at least 7.0 innings.
Next Up
Arizona State moves on to face the loser of TCU and Oral Roberts in a 2 p.m. elimination game on Sunday. Oral Roberts is eliminated from the NCAA Fort Worth Regional.
