ASU baseball takes down Titans in ten innings

A night after a walk-off loss to #15 Cal State Fullerton, #4 Arizona State turned the tables on the Titans, rallying with two outs in the top of the tenth to score a 10-8 victory at Goodwin Field. Raoul Torrez's two-run single gave the Devils the lead, and Tommy Rafferty's perfect tenth sealed win. ASU improves to 32-7 on the season.

For the second straight night Arizona State jumped ahead in the first only to surrender the lead. Tonight however the Devils were able to rally back from a four run deficit to score the victory.

Brett Wallace put ASU up 2-0 in the first, homering over the batter's eye in center field with Petey Paramore aboard. It was the 11th homer of the season for Wallace. Kiel Roling made it 3-0 with a solo bomb to center, his sixth of the year. The Titans got all three back in the bottom of the inning of starter Seth Blair. He allowed back-to-back hits and an RBI groundout that made it 3-1. With two outs and one on, Blair induced a pop up to second base, but Raoul Torrez lost it in the sun allowing the inning to continue. The next batter tripled to tie the game.

The Titans would take the lead in the second on a Josh Fellhauer two-run homer to right field. They added an unearned run in the third to up their lead to 6-3. An RBI single by Jason Kipnis in the fourth cut the lead to 6-4.

Cal State Fullerton scored two more in the fourth off Matt Newman, thanks to two Sun Devil errors. That put the Titans up 8-4. Kiel RolingRyan Sontag's single up the middle scored two more to cut the lead to 8-7. Roling tied the game in the sixth with a blooper to center that scored Greg Bordes from third. made it 8-5 with an RBI double that brought home Wallace, then

The Devils threatened in the eighth, loading the bases with one out, but were unable to score. Last night, ASU loaded the bases twice but were unable to get a run across. They loaded the bases again in the tenth with two away, only this time they were able to capitalize. Raoul Torrez, who had struck out four times in the game, laced the first pitch he saw from Titan reliever Ryan Ackland into center, scoring Jake Elmore and Rocky Laguna to put the Devils up 10-8.

Rafferty earned the win, improving him to 7-0. He went 2.2 innings, allowing only one man to reach base. Reyes Dorado was also stellar out of the bullpen, throwing 3.1 innings of scoreless ball, allowing the ASU offense to rally back.

The Devils pounded out 14 hits, led by Kiel Roling's four. He added three RBI to go with the four hits. Wallace, Marcel Champagnie and Torrez each had two hits, while Ryan Sontag, Wallace and Torrez also knocked in two.

The Devils return home on Friday night to host the California Golden Bears in a three-game Pac-10 series. First pitch Friday is scheduled for 7 p.m. from Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.