April 29, 2011
TEMPE, Ariz. - The No. 6 Arizona State Sun Devils held on to defeat the Stanford Cardinal 12-10 in a wild Pac-10 conference tilt in Tempe on Friday night. The two teams combined for 22 runs and 31 hits, including 12 runs over the final inning and a half. The Sun Devils improved to 30-9 overall and 12-4 in conference play with the win.
Brady Rodgers earned his sixth victory of the season (6-2), going 7.0 innings as the starter. The Devils were led offensively by third baseman Riccio Torrez, who went 3-for-5 with four RBI and a triple. Joey DeMichele also contributed with three RBI on 3-for-4 hitting.
The Sun Devils found themselves in an early 3-0 hole after two and a half, but answered back by notching two runs in the bottom of the third with singles by DeMichele and Zack MacPhee. A sacrifice fly by Andrew Aplin left them trailing 4-3 after four innings.
ASU took the lead after a three-run seventh inning, thanks to a two-run triple by Torrez and a sacrifice fly by DeMichele. After reliever Trevor Williams surrendered one to the Cardinal in the top of the eighth, ASU put six runs on the scoreboard in an inning that saw 11 Devils come to the plate and four different Cardinal relievers. After the Cardinal walked in a run, Torrez brought two more home with a bases loaded single to right, and ASU capped off its rally with an RBI single by DeMichele and a two-run single by Matt Newman. Newman, who ended the top of the eighth by making a diving catch to save a run, went 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth.
The Cardinal made it interesting in the ninth, tagging reliever Mitchell Lambson for five runs before he hung on to record the final out and earn the Devils their thirtieth victory on the year. The Devils and Cardinal will face off in game two of the series with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.