The 11th-ranked Arizona State baseball team, behind a pair of scoreless innings from left-hander Matt Dunbar and a walk-off single by first baseman Abe Ruiz, defeated Northern Illinois 4-3 on Friday at the Coca-Cola Classic.
Ruiz lined a hard-hit single down the right-field line with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to score second baseman Joey DeMichele from first and send the Sun Devils (7-1) to their third consecutive win.
Dunbar (1-0) earned his first win at ASU after giving up one hit and no runs while striking out four in two innings. He took the mound in the eighth and bookended a groundout and a double with a pair of strikeouts to escape the frame unscathed. He recorded consecutive strikeouts to begin the ninth inning before forcing a groundout.
Shortstop Deven Marrero tallied a season-best two RBIs and had a solo home run to left field in the fifth inning that gave the Devils a short-lived one-run lead.
ASU right-hander Alex Blackford, in his first start of the season, finished with a no-decision after leaving the game in the middle of the seventh inning with the score knotted at three runs apiece. Blackford went a career-best seven innings and set a new career high with 10 strikeouts, including three straight on two occasions, as the Huskies (0-9) brought more than the minimum number of batters to the plate in only two of the innings he pitched.
The Devils jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the second inning when catcher Beau Maggi hit an RBI single up the middle to bring home designated hitter James McDonald, who had reached on a single before stealing second.
After Blackford struck out the first two batters of the third inning, Northern Illinois countered with a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead. Jordan Huffman reached on a hard-hit single, and Jamison Wells singled to put two on. A walk to the following batter, Alex Jones, loaded the bases for Troy White, who hit a two-run single to right-center field.
ASU evened it up in the bottom of the third, as leadoff hitter Andrew Aplin doubled down the left-field line and Marrero recorded his first RBI of the game two batters later with a single through the left side.
Blackford got himself out of a jam in the top of the sixth inning with a two-out, bases-loaded strikeout, his eighth of the game, after conceding a game-tying RBI double to Alex Klonowski earlier in the frame.
ASU threatened in the bottom of the eighth, putting runners on second and third after a passed ball by NIU advanced pinch runner Tucker Esmay, who came in after Maggi was hit by a pitch, and third baseman Michael Benjamin, who reached on a single.
NIU starter Jake Hermsen, a lefty who allowed three runs on eight hits and struck out eight in 7 2/3 innings pitched, was relieved with one out in the eighth and took a no-decision.
Right-hander Ben Etcheverry (0-1) suffered his first loss of the season after giving up the game-winning run in the ninth.
The Sun Devils play their third game of the Coca-Cola Classic on Saturday against Winthrop University. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. at Surprise Stadium.
