March 14, 2010
TEMPE, Ariz. - Auburn could not salvage the final game of its series at No. 2 Arizona State, falling 8-3, on Sunday afternoon at Packard Stadium. The loss was the third straight for Auburn, which came into the series with a six-game winning streak.
"Arizona State played extremely well all weekend and they didn't beat themselves," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "We have to improve. This was certainly a wake-up call for everybody, the guys and our staff."
Auburn (9-5) jumped on Arizona State (15-0) starter Jake Borup for three runs in the first two innings but couldn't muster much offense after that, collecting just one base runner from the third through seventh innings. Borup went five innings, allowing three runs on five hits and a walk, striking out six to go to 4-0 on the season.
The teams traded two-run home runs in the first as Hunter Morris (1-for-4) drove in Justin Hargett (2-for-4) with his second blast of the weekend only to have Riccio Torrez (2-for-5, 3 RBI) answer by depositing a Jon Luke Jacobs pitch back over the centerfield wall in almost the exact same spot as Morris', capitalizing on a walk to the second hitter in the inning.
Ryan Jenkins' (1-for-3) RBI double with two outs in the top of the second gave Auburn the lead back, 3-2, bringing Tony Caldwell (0-for2, 2 BB, SB) home after he walked and stole second to start the inning.
Arizona State tied it at 3-3 in the bottom of the third, capitalizing on an Auburn error to score an unearned run off of Jacobs and then knocked the Auburn starter out with a leadoff home run in the bottom fourth to take a 4-3 lead, bringing Grant Dayton in for his first relief appearance since March 18, 2008. Jacobs (0-2) allowed four runs on three hits and two walks to take the loss.
Arizona State, which made its living in the fifth inning during the course of the weekend by scoring nine runs in the first two game combined, tacked on three more on Sunday to take a 7-3 lead, knocking Dayton from the game after he went just one inning, allowing two runs on a hit and three walks.
Arizona State extended its lead to five runs with a run off of Zach Blatt in the bottom of the sixth, staking itself to an 8-3 lead.
Sean Ray, Michael Hurst and Austin Hubbard threw the final 2 2/3 innings without allowing a run.
Auburn returns home for a pair of midweek games, facing Alabama A&M at 6:30pm on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Arizona State 8, Auburn 3 (Mar 14, 2010 at Tempe, AZ)
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Auburn.............. 210 000 000 - 3 7 1 (9-5)
Arizona State....... 201 131 00X - 8 9 1 (15-0)
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Win-Borup, Jake(4-0) Loss-Jon Luke Jacobs(0-2) T-3:00 A-3469
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