Good pitching is contagious.
Just ask California’s bewildered lineup.
Thanks to a 17-inning marathon game Thursday, the ASU baseball team’s bullpen was stretched to its limits.
But what the No. 9 Sun Devils (28-9, 11-4 Pac-10) didn’t realize was they wouldn’t need their relievers the rest of the weekend.
Junior Kramer Champlin and sophomore Jake Barrett threw back-to-back five-hit complete game shutouts Friday and Saturday to complete a three game sweep of the No. 19 Golden Bears (24-12, 9-6 Pac-10) in Berkeley.
“We strung our guys out on Thursday,” ASU coach Tim Esmay told The Fan AM 1060. “It was nice to score runs early and let our guys go to work and keep them off-balance.”
Champlin got the start Friday, just hours after Thursday’s epic contest ended.
In the second inning, redshirt junior outfielder Andy Workman and senior catcher Xorge Carrillo provided ASU with an early lead, both of them knocking in a run.
Champlin didn’t need any offense after that.
No Golden Bear advanced to second base off the righty until the seventh inning.
The Sun Devils added two more runs in the sixth and one in the eighth to extend their lead even further.
Champlin retired the last seven Cal batters to end the game and give ASU a 5-0 win.
“I felt like I hit my spots well,” he said. “They grounded out a bunch and that helps with a great defense behind me. I just tried to keep doing my job.”
Friday marked the second time this season the transfer has thrown a complete game.
To that point, he was the only Sun Devil to go all nine innings in 2011.
He soon got company.
Barrett, in his previous three road starts, gave up a combined 19 runs in 11 1/3 innings.
His away struggles ended abruptly on Saturday.
Barrett cruised through the Cal lineup, not allowing a hit until the third inning.
In that frame, ASU sophomore outfielder Andrew Aplin kept the game scoreless with an assist from center field to get Cal junior designated hitter Danny Oh out at home plate.
The next half inning, the Sun Devils got on the board with a RBI single from sophomore designated hitter Joey DeMichele and a balk from Cal junior pitcher Dixon Anderson scoring ASU third baseman Riccio Torrez.
The latter of which prompted Golden Bear coach David Esquer to come out of the dugout and argue the call. He eventually was tossed from the game.
Cal assistant coach Dan Hubbs was also ejected for arguing a call later in the game.
ASU junior first baseman Zach Wilson homered in the sixth and DeMichele followed his teammate up in the eighth with a long ball of his own to push the Sun Devil lead to six.
Barrett finished off the sweep in style in the ninth, educing Cal freshman Michael Theofanopoulos to ground into a game-ending double play, earning the Sun Devils a 6-0 victory.
The last time ASU threw consecutive complete game shutouts was May 10 and 15 of 2009 when Jason Franzblau and Mike Leake accomplished the feat against two different teams.
“We had to come out and out-energize them,” Esmay said. “Our guys did a good job of attacking Cal. We made plays and we minimized innings.”
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu
