April 21, 2000
UCLA second baseman Chase Utley knocked in a season-high five runs as No. 19 UCLA defeated No. 3 Arizona State 13-3 this evening at Packard Stadium. The Sun Devils fall to 34-10, 10-4 in conference action while the Bruins improve to 25-17 overall, 8-3 in league play.
UCLA had a big second inning tagging ASU starter Chad Pennington for six runs before chasing him from the game. Chase Utley and Jim Hemming both hit homeruns in the inning accounting for four of the six runs between them.
ASU didn't get on the board until the bottom of the sixth inning when Mike Lopez led off the inning with a double and moved to third on a ground out by first baseman Jeff Phelps. Second baseman Brooks Conrad hit a sacrifice fly to leftfield to score Lopez.
The Bruins put the game out of reach with two runs in the seventh and four runs in the top of the ninth including Utley's second homerun of the game.
Taking the loss on the mound for the Devils was starter Chad Pennington (7-2)who lasted only 1.2 innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits.
Winning pitcher for the Bruins was starter Josh Karp (6-1) who pitched 7.1 innings allowing only two hits and three runs with nine walks and 10 strikeouts.
Pinch hitter Phil Downing went 1-for-1 with an RBI for the night while Mel Stocker and Brooks Conrad both hit sacrifice flies to record an RBI each.
For the Bruins, Bill Scott went 3-for-6 with a run scored while Chase Utley ended the night going 2-for-5 with two runs scored and five RBI.
Arizona State and UCLA wrap up the three-game conference series tomorrow with a 1 p.m. start time at Packard Stadium. Slated to take the mound for the Bruins is lefthander Bobby Roe (5-3, 4.98 ERA) while the Sun Devils will start Jered Liebeck (0-0, 1.93 ERA). For ticket information, please contact the ASU ticket office at 480-965-2381.