No. 15 ASU baseball improved to 2-1 by defeating Sacramento State 3-1 at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Sunday.
ASU dropped the first game of the series 4-2 but won the final two games of the weekend to take the series.
After defeating the Hornets 2-1 in Saturday afternoon's affair, the Sun Devils began the third game of the opening-season series on a sturdy note, earning two runs in the bottom of the second inning from a double to right field courtesy of redshirt freshman Joe Lampe, which brought home freshman third baseman Hunter Haas and redshirt senior catcher Sam Ferri.
The Sun Devils added an additional run one inning later, with an Allbry Major single that brought home redshirt freshman Sean McLain.
The Hornets finally found the scoreboard in the top of the fifth on a double to right-center field to bring the score to 3-1.
Redshirt sophomore pitcher Erik Tolman recorded six strikeouts and allowed just one hit through the opening five innings in his first start of the season.
Tolman was replaced on the mound by redshirt freshman Cam Dennie, redshirt junior Boyd Vander Kooi and redshirt freshman Graham Osman.
The Sun Devils ended the game with 10 hits from seven different batters, led by Lampe, McLain and Ferri, all of whom had two.
Sacramento State ended the game with just one hit in the contest. ASU did leave eight batters on base in the game, compared to just three for Sacramento State.
ASU's pitchers combined for 129 pitches, 78 of which were strikes. The Sun Devils also batted 0.375 — an effective three of eight — when leading off an inning.
ASU hosts Hawai'i on Friday and Saturday in the second series of the season; the series marks the beginning of the 2021 season for Hawai'i.
Reach the reporter at aklatsky@asu.edu and follow @averyklatsky on Twitter.
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