Baseball defeats Meiji University

On Tuesday night at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark, Arizona State defeated Meiji University 9-1 in an international exhibition baseball game in front of 2,805 fans.

Alex Blackford got the start on the mound for the Devils and was fantastic over his six innings of work. He allowed one run on three hits while striking out seven to pick up the win. Josh Moody worked the final three innings and allowed just one hit to earn the save.

Meiji took an early 1-0 lead in the second when Shogo Shashiki scored from third on a wild pitch from Blackford. The Devils would take the lead in the bottom of the third on a three-run homer by Riccio Torrez that brought home Johnny Ruettiger and Deven Marrero.

ASU would plate another run in the fifth to go up 4-1 on a Zach Wilson RBI single. In the sixth, Ruettiger drove in a run on a fielder's choice, and two batters later, Riccio Torrez added a two-run triple. Torrez would then score on the play when the relay throw to third got by the third baseman.

Xorge Carrillo would add another run in the seventh with a solo homer to left that made it 9-1.

Overall on the night, Riccio Torrez went 2-for-3 with a home run and a triple, driving in five runs and scoring twice. Marrero was 3-for-4 with three runs scored, and Wilson added three hits of his own.

The exhibition with Meiji will not count against Arizona State's 2010 overall record, nor will any of the statistics count toward 2010 totals. It was ASU's first international exhibition since 1999.

The Devils return to action on Thursday when they take on the Cal Poly Mustangs in the Coca-Cola Baseball Classic at Surprise Stadium. First pitch for the game will be 45 minutes following the conclusion of the Major League Baseball spring training game, set to start at 1 p.m. from Surprise Stadium.