Pac-10 CHAMPS! Baseball team claims conference crown
<p>Arizona State claimed its seventh Pac-10 Conference championship May 23 in front of a season high crowd of 4,088 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark thanks to an 8-5 win over in-state rival Arizona. Mike Leake threw six gutsy innings on short rest and Matt Hall blasted a key two-run homer to give the Sun Devils their second Pac-10 title since 2000 and first outright crown since 1993. ASU improves to 42-12 on the year, 18-4 in Pac-10 play.</p><separator></separator><p>Arizona jumped on the board in the top of the first, as C.J. Ziegler sent a solo shot to left field with two out to give UA the early 1-0 lead. Eric Sogard tied it up in the bottom of the first, doubling down the right field line to score Tim Smith. An Ike Davis sac fly put ASU up 2-1, then a Petey Paramore sacrifice to center made it 3-1.</p><separator></separator><p>Matt Spencer made it 4-1 in the third with a double down the right field line that scored Paramore from first. Matt Hall added two more with a two-run shot to left field. He started the at-bat attempting to bunt Andrew Romine over to second, but after getting two strikes on him took the bunt off and hammered his fourth homer of the year.</p><separator></separator><p>The Devils added an unearned run in the fifth, as Ike Davis scored after a throwing error by Arizona's second baseman. That made it 7-1 Arizona State. The Wildcats cut it to 7-4 in the sixth, hitting back-to-back home runs off Leake to cut the lead to three.</p><separator></separator><p>Arizona State made it 8-4 in the seventh when Petey Paramore scored on an Andrew Romine sac fly. The Wildcats got the run right back in the eighth, when Jon Gaston took Jason Jarvis deep for a solo shot. That would be all the Cats could muster off Jarvis however, as he recorded the final six out to give the Devils the win and the Pac-10.</p><separator></separator><p>Leake lasted six innings, allowing four runs on six hits. He also struck out six and uped his record to 12-1. Ike Davis pitched the seventh, keeping the Wildcats off the board by pitching out of trouble.</p><separator></separator><p>Brett Wallace, Ike Davis, Petey Paramore and Matt Spencer each had two hits for Arizona State, while five Devils recorded and RBI.</p><separator></separator><p>The Devils and Cats will play game two of the three-game set Thursday night at 7 p.m. from Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.</p>