TEMPE - Sophomore righty Brady Rodgers allowed only two singles through five innings and junior Riccio Torrez turned in his first career multi-homer game as Arizona State defeated New Mexico 8-0 in Friday night's season opener at Packard Stadium. A crowd of 3,143 was on hand.
Rodgers struck out five in five innings before giving way to sophomore Alex Bradford, who gave up two runs, one earned, in four innings to pick up his first career save.
ASU scored one in the first when Torrez signled in Johnn Ruettiger and another in the second on a Ruettiger sacrifice fly. Torrez hit a solo home run in the third inning and a three-run shot in the fourth. He finished with four hits and five RBI.
ASU and New Mexico will continue the series Saturday with a double-header at 1 p.m. The games will be webcast on foxsportsarizona.com.
