Feb. 22, 2003
TEMPE, Ariz. (www.TheSunDevils.com) -- Sophomore Jeff Larish was 2-for-3 with a grand slam home run and junior Jeremy West hit two home runs to help lift the No. 4 Arizona State Sun Devils to a 16-3 victory over the No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Saturday afternoon in front of 3,605 fans at Packard Stadium.
With their 11th straight victory, the Devils continued their hot start, improving to 20-1 on the season and 3-1 against ranked opponents. The 20-1 start is the second best in 44 years of varsity baseball at ASU, with the 1972 squad going 23-1 en route to a 64-6 final record. The victory also moved ASU head coach, and former Notre Dame skipper, Pat Murphy to within one game of his 700th collegiate victory. Notre Dame, who beat Newman (NAIA) earlier in the day 15-5, suffered its first loss of the year (2-1).
Senior Beau Vaughan (Glendale) was phenomenal in his second start of the year giving up only one earned run in five and two-thirds innings to improve to 3-1. The transfer from New Orleans struck out six in the game and now has 33 strikeouts in 27.0 IP this year. Freshman lefty Brett Bordes (Mesa) contributed two scoreless innings (2.0 IP, 1 H, 3 SO) and junior closer Ryan Schroyer sealed the win by striking out the side in the ninth. Schroyer has yet to allow an earned run and has 16 strikeouts in 10.1 innings this year.
Larish broke out of a mild slump that had seem him go 1-for-12 of his last four games with his three hits and scored two runs. His fifth-inning grand slam was his second of the year and his eighth round-tripper of 2003. West blasted his fifth and sixth homers of the year, including a grand slam in the eighth to cap a five-run inning. The junior slugger now has 25 career home runs. In addition to the big games from Larish and West, sophomore shortstop Dustin Pedroia added his 13th multi-hit game of the year going 2-for-5 and now has at least one hit in 20 of ASU's 21 games this year.
The Devils trailed early 1-0 after a solo home run from freshman designated hitter Steve Andres. ND starter Peter Ogilvie )-1) held the potent ASU offense in check while not giving up a hit until Larish singled with one out in the fourth. Vaughan stranded runners in scoring position in the first, third, fourth and fifth innings to allow ASU to come back. Ogilvie took the loss giving up four hits and five runs (one earned) in five innings.
ASU tied the game on an error by Notre Dame's highly touted shortstop Matt Macri. After the one-out error off the bat of freshman Ryan Bosch, Larish provided the big blow with a two-out grand slam to left-center field to stake ASU to the 5-1 lead. ND countered with two runs in the top of the sixth to bring the score to 5-3, but Bordes cleaned up a bases loaded jam to keep ASU's two-run cushion. The Devils then erupted for four more runs in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to 9-3. Pedroia provided the big blow with a two-run single to right field after fouling a ball off the instep of his foot.
Keeping to ASU's season trend of big innings (two or more runs), ASU had two five-run, one four-run and one two-run innings Saturday vs. Notre Dame. For the season the Devils have now tallied 53 frames of scoring two or more runs and have now outscored their opponent 228-80 this year.
The Devils will continue their three-game weekend homestand tomorrow with a 1 p.m. game against the Irish at Packard Stadium. Senior transfer Ben Thurmond (2-0, 1.80 ERA) will start against Irish senior Ryan Kalita. Arizona State 16, Notre Dame 3 (Feb 22, 2003 at Tempe, Ariz.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Notre Dame.......... 010 002 000 - 3 6 3 (2-1) Arizona State....... 000 054 25X - 16 10 3 (20-1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitchers: Notre Dame - Ogilvie; Laird(6); Vergara(7). Arizona State - Vaughan; Bordes(6); Schroyer(9). Win-Vaughan(3-1) Loss-Ogilvie(0-1) T- A-3605 HR UND - Andres (1). HR ASU - Larish (8); West 2 (6). --Sun Devil Baseball--