Feb. 27, 2005
TEMPE, Ariz. (www.TheSunDevils.com) -- The No. 8 Baylor Bears capitalized on four Arizona State errors over the last three innings and held off a furious rally to salvage the final game of a three-game non-conference series with a 8-7 victory in 10 innings Sunday afternoon at Packard Stadium.
After chipping away at an early five-run deficit, Baylor tied the game at 5-5 with an unearned run on a groundout by catcher Josh Ford in the top of the ninth inning. A pair of errors by the Sun Devils in the top of the 10th inning led to three unearned runs as Baylor took a 8-5 lead. ASU wouldn't go down quietly, as redshirt freshman Rocky Laguna hit a two-out, two-run triple to center field to pull the Devils to within one run, but freshman third baseman Eric Sogard grounded out with the tying run at third base to end the game.
Arizona State fell to 8-10 with the loss and missed an opportunity to sweep a top 10 team for the first time since 1997 (Stanford - #2). Baylor improved to 6-4 and earned its first victory over the Sun Devils in five all-time meetings. ASU has played the toughest schedule in the nation at this point in the season with 11 of 18 games against ranked opponents, including the last eight against top 10 teams.
"We let one get away today and had some pretty crucial errors, but overall I thought we accomplished a lot this weekend and are headed in the right direction," said 11th year head coach Pat Murphy. "Nobody is playing the schedule that we are playing and we did a good job of getting back to what makes us a good ball club. We need to keep getting better and keep improving."
Senior right-handed reliever Jason Urquidez (Simi Valley, Calif.) was saddled with the tough-luck loss giving up only two hits and three unearned runs in 4.1 innings. He struck out two and walked three to fall to 2-2 on the season. Junior left-hander Erik Averill (Orange, Calif.) worked five solid innings, giving up six hits and four runs before leaving with a 5-4 lead.
Baylor relief pitcher Ryan LaMotta picked up the win out of the bullpen giving up three hits and two runs in 3.1 innings. Abe Woody earned his third save of the year giving up one hit (Laguna's triple) in two-thirds of an inning. Preseason All-American Mark McCormick was touched for five early runs, but settled down to strikeout seven in six solid innings.
Junior right fielder Travis Buck (Richland, Wash.) capped off a solid weekend at the plate going 2-for-5 with one run and one RBI. He finished the series against Baylor hitting .571 (8-for-14) with six runs scored and six RBI. Senior first baseman Jeff Larish (Tempe, Ariz.) played stellar defense and added his sixth multi-hit game of the year going 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Freshman designated hitter Willy Fox (Scottsdale, Ariz.) went 1-for-4, including a three-run home run in the first inning. Fox has recorded a home run in each of his three starts as a Sun Devil and has nine RBI over his last three games.
Baylor first baseman Kyle Reynolds scorched the Sun Devil pitching staff for the second straight day going 3-for-5 with five RBI. He hit a two-run home run in the fifth inning and added two important insurance runs with a two-run single in the top of the 10th. Outfielder Seth Fortenberry did not start, but came off the bench to go 2-for-3 with two runs scored and plated what proved to be the game-winning run with a double off the right field in the top of the 10th.
Just coming off an eight-game road trip, ASU will take back to the road the next two weekends, starting with three games at the Keith LeClair Invitational hosted by East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. The Sun Devils will play their ninth straight contest against a top 10 team Friday night against No. 10 North Carolina (5 p.m. ET/3 p.m. MT). ASU will also play tournament host East Carolina on Saturday (5 p.m. ET/3 p.m. MT) and Ohio State on Sunday (10 a.m. ET/8 a.m. MT).
Game Notes: Eric Sogard made his first career start and recorded his first career hit with a single to lead off the ninth inning... ASU started four true freshman... head coach Pat Murphy used his 15th different starting batting lineup... the five errors matched a season high and ASU has now made 38 errors in 18 games (.948 FLD%)... the triple by Rocky Laguna was ASU's sixth this season, only one short of the entire season total from last season... all three of Willy Fox's home runs have gone to the opposite field (right field)... senior Jason Urquidez flourished in his new role out of the bullpen combining to allow only three hits and three unearned runs in 7.1 innings in the series against Baylor... all seven of ASU's runs came with two outs on the scoreboard... senior catcher Tuffy Gosewisch extended his hitting streak to four games and has recorded at least one hit in 16 of ASU's 18 games this season... Gosewisch also remains perfect in 160 chances behind the plate this year and has thrown out 10 attempted base stealers.
Baylor 8, Arizona State 7 (Feb 27, 2005 at Tempe, Ariz.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Baylor.............. 002 020 001 3 - 8 10 1 (6-4) Arizona State....... 410 000 000 2 - 7 9 5 (8-10) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitchers: Baylor - McCormick; LaMotta(7); Woody(10). Arizona State - Averill; Urquidez(6); Barnette(10); Bordes, B.(10). Win-LaMotta(2-0) Save-Woody(3) Loss-Urquidez(2-2) T-3:39 A-2799 HR BU - Reynolds (4). HR ASU - Fox (3).
--Sun Devil Baseball--