June 7, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. - An unlikely power surge by senior outfielder Ryan Sontag lifted the ASU baseball team to a 12-4 victory over Fresno State in Game 1 of the Tempe Super Regional in front of a sellout crowd of 4,371 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The Sun Devils improve to 49-11 on the season and move to within one win of the College World Series with the victory.
Sontag hit two home runs, the first multi-homer game of his career, had four RBI and scored three runs to lead the ASU offense. Brett Wallace and Jason Kipnis also had three hits each in the game.
Starting pitcher Mike Leake went 7.2 innings, allowing eight hits and two earned runs to earn the win and improve to 11-2 on the season.
Fresno State jumped out to the lead with an RBI triple by Steve Susdorf in the top of the first, but it would not last long.
The Sun Devils tied the game in the bottom half of the inning when Sontag scored on a double play, and then Sontag's first homer of the game, a two-run shot to right, put them in front 3-1 in the third.
ASU then broke open the game with a five-run fifth. Ike Davis drove in a run, the 200th RBI of his Sun Devil career, with a single to right to start the scoring in the inning. Petey Paramore then brought in two more with a single through the right side, and Kiel Roling and Raoul Torrez added RBI singles of their own before the inning was over.
Leake also settled down after giving up two hits and a run in the first, as he sent down 10 in a row at one point and did not allow another hit until an infield single in the sixth.
The Bulldogs did cut into the lead with a run in the seventh and two unearned runs in the eighth, but Davis came on in relief of Leake and struck out Tommy Mendonca to end the Fresno State rally in the top of the eighth.
Sontag then hit his second homer of the night, another two-run blast, in the bottom of the eighth, and Wallace and Davis scored on an error later in the inning. Tommy Rafferty pitched a perfect ninth, striking out two, to secure the victory.
ASU will meet the Bulldogs again tomorrow night in Game 2 of the Super Regional series. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.