April 5, 2007
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Tempe, Ariz. -
No. 15 Arizona State (24-10, 5-2 Pac-10) scored the final five runs of the game in a 5-4 comeback victory over Stanford (13-13, 0-4 Pac-10) in the opener of a three-game Pac-10 series on a warm Thursday night in front of 3547 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. Kiel Roling (4-4, 2 RBI) had four hits and was credited with Arizona State's only two runs batted in, including the eventual game-winner with a one-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning that scored Brett Wallace. Mike Leake (7-1) tossed a complete game with eight strikeouts and shut the Cardinal out over the final seven innings after allowing four runs in his first two frames.
Stanford jumped out to a 4-0 lead after an inning and a half but had only three hits after the second and just one after the fourth. Leake retired 16 of the final 17 batters he faced with Michael Taylor's single to lead off the eighth inning the only blemish in Leake's performance after Sean Ratliff's two-out single in the third. Leake (9.0 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO) faced just two batters over the minimum in his final seven innings and also struck out five of the last six Stanford hitters in the contest while protecting a one-run lead.
Taylor (2-3, 2 RBI) and Ratliff (2-4, 2B) had two hits each for the Cardinal, while Adam Sorgi extended his season-high hit streak to nine games with a first inning single. Joey August had his career-high 11-game hit streak snapped by going 0-for-4 but did drive in a run in the Cardinal first.
Petey Paramore (2-3, 2B) was the only Arizona State player other than Roling with more than one hit.
Stanford starter Jeremy Bleich (1-5) suffered the loss, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits and four walks with six strikeouts over 6.0 innings.
Ratliff led off the game with a double over the head of Arizona State rightfielder Ike Davis, moved to third on Sorgi's single and scored when Taylor lined an RBI single down the right field line. An RBI groundout by August brought Sorgi home from third base with the second run of the frame but Taylor was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a subsequent Jason Castro single before Castro was picked off first by Leake to end the rally.
In the second, Stanford added extended its advantage to 4-0 but left the bases loaded with a chance to break the game open early. Stanford took advantage of a pair of hit batsmen by Leake and an error by Wallace at first base to score two unearned runs. Leake hit Brendan Domaracki to start the inning followed by a Brian Juhl single to put Cardinal runners on first and second with no outs. Cord Phelps then bunted a ball that Wallace threw away trying to get Domaracki at third base with Domaracki coming all the way around to score on the play, while Juhl moved up to third. Gaylord was then hit by a pitch to load the bases but Juhl and Phelps were thrown out at home plate on successive fielder's choices by Ratliff and Sorgi for the first two outs. Taylor drew a bases loaded walk to force home Gaylord but Arizona State escaped further damage when Leake got August to ground out to Wallace to end the inning.
Stanford threatened to add to its lead in the fourth when Phelps led off with a single and moved to third two batters later on a single by Ratliff but Leake induced Sorgi into an inning-ending double play to prevent the Cardinal from scoring in the frame.
Arizona State immediately answered with a four-run bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 4-4. Paramore's leadoff double started the rally before Davis singled to put Sun Devils on first and third with no outs. Roling got Arizona State on the scoreboard with an RBI single to score Paramore and move Davis to second. Matt Spencer then bunted a ball that Bleich threw wildly in an attempt to get Davis on his way to third. David scored on the play with Roling ending up at third and Spencer at second. Bleich then wild pitched both Roling and Spencer home before finally getting out the inning by retiring three straight hitters.
The Sun Devils had a chance to take their first lead in the bottom of the fifth but Ratliff threw out Paramore at the plate trying to score on a two-out single to the Cardinal centerfielder.
Arizona State also got runners to second and third in the sixth on a pair of Cardinal errors by Phelps and Bleich, and a sacrifice bunt from Tim Smith before Bleich got out of the jam by retiring Eric Sogard on a deep fly out to Taylor in right field.
Bleich's wildness and defensive problems finally got the best of him in the Sun Devil seventh. Bleich walked Wallace to start the inning and then failed to field a sacrifice bunt by Paramore, leaving runners on first and second with no outs. Bleich got two strikes on Davis before leaving the game with an injury. Tom Stilson (0.1 IP, 1 H) came on to get the final strike on Davis before being removed in favor of Erik Davis (1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 SO), who allowed Roling's game-winning RBI single down the left field line.
The loss was Stanford's fourth in a row to begin Pac-10 play.
Stanford will continue its three-game set at Arizona State on Friday (7 pm, MT/PT) and Saturday (1 pm, MT/PT) with the finale of the series being televised live by Fox Sports Net Arizona. Stanford will also be at Nevada (Tuesday, April 10, 2 pm, PT) for a non-conference game to complete a four-game road trip before returning home to Sunken Diamond to host Arizona in a three-game Pac-10 series Friday-Sunday, April 13-15 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT).
Tickets for the upcoming Arizona series and all regular season Stanford Baseball home contests are available online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD. On game days, tickets may be purchased at the Sunken Diamond Ticket Office window beginning one hour before first pitch. For group ticket information (groups of 10 or more), call 650-725-2876.