Feb. 23, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. - In a highly anticipated match-up between two teams ranked in the Top Five, #1 Arizona State dominated the third ranked Commodores of Vanderbilt 18-6 in front of 3,300 fans at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The second day of the DeMarini Invitational was kind to the Sun Devil bats, as ASU pounded out 16 hits, including two home runs by Brett Wallace, to put Arizona State at 2-0 on the year. It was ASU's first ever victory over Vanderbilt.
Wallace, last year's Pac-10 Player of the Year and Triple Crown winner, recorded his third career multi-homer game, hitting a grand slam in the fourth and adding a three-run shot in the sixth. It was the first career grand slam for Wallace and his seven RBI tied his career high. He finished the day 2-3 with four runs scored.
Mike Leake was the beneficiary of the offensive onslaught, lasting six innings, allowing seven hits and one earned run while striking out four to pick up the victory.
The Devils started the scoring in the third inning when Ike Davis doubled to right center to drive in Wallace and Petey Paramore. Davis would come around to score on a Jason Kipnis triple to put ASU up 3-0 on Vanderbilt starter Brett Jacobson.
Wallace blasted his grand slam in the fourth, scoring Matt Newman, Marcel Champagnie and Jake Elmore to make it 7-0. Jason Kipnis hit his second homer in as many games, taking a ball off the Green Monster in center for a two-run shot and a 9-0 ASU lead.
Davis would score two more in the fifth with his single through the right side, then a Kiel Roling RBI single made it 12-0 Arizona State.
Vanderbilt pushed two across in the sixth off Leake, ending a streak of 14.1 innings of scoreless baseball by the ASU pitching staff. Arizona State added four more in the sixth, first on an Elmore RBI single, then three more on Wallace's second homer of the game, a blast onto Rural Road in right field.
Greg Bordes has an RBI ground out to score Coby Cress and Andy Workman recorded his first RBI as a Sun Devil when he singled down the left field line to score Roling. That ended the scoring for the Devils, while Vandy pushed a run across in the eighth and three in the ninth to make it 18-6.
Five Sun Devils had multi-hit games, led by the three hits from Ike Davis, who went 3-4 with four RBI. Wallace, Roling, Kipnis and Marcel Champagnie each had two hits in the victory.
The Devils will wrap up the DeMarini Invitational tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. when they meet Oregon State in a non-conference match-up at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.