May 30, 2004
STANFORD, Calif. (www.TheSunDevils.com) -- Jeff Larish went 2-for-4 with a grand slam home run and Josh Asanovich added a three-run homer as the No. 8 Arizona State Sun Devils completed the regular season with a 15-5 thrashing of No. 2 Stanford Sunday afternoon in Pac-10 baseball action at Sunken Diamond.
The Sun Devils recorded their 40th victory of the season and gave 10th year head coach Pat Murphy his 400th career win at ASU. The Devils ended the season winners of 15 of their last 20 games to end the season 40-16 overall and in fourth place in the Pac-10 at 13-11. Stanford won the Pac-10 championship with a 44-12 overall record and a 16-8 league mark.
The Devils held a 7-5 lead after five innings before Larish hit his fifth career grand slam home run in the top of the sixth inning. Asanovich then blasted his fifth home run of the year with a three-run shot in the seventh to bring the game to the final score of 15-5.
Sun Devil freshman Quentin Andes, the second of eight pitchers, recorded the win to improve to 5-1 on the season. Closer Zechry Zinicola earned his team-leading seventh save of the season giving up only two hits in 4.2 scoreless frames.
Stanford starting pitcher Matt Leva took the loss giving up five runs and four hits in 1.1 innings of work to fall to 5-2 on the season.
ASU struck first with three runs in the top of the first inning. Tuffy Gosewisch started the rally with a run-scoring groundout and center fielder Ryan McKenna drilled a two-out, two-run single give the Devils the early 3-0 advantage.
Stanford came right back with four runs in the bottom of the first to chase starter Brett Bordes from the game after only one out. Brian Hall had a run-scoring double to the right field gap and John Mayberry Jr. and Jed Lowrie each had RBI singles.
ASU added to its lead with two runs in each the second and third innings. Two runs scored in the second on a pair of throwing errors on pickoff plays and Nick Cadena and Joe Persichina each had run-scoring singles in the third to extend the lead to 7-4.
Stanford senior center fielder Sam Fuld led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run to bring the Cardinal to within two runs at 7-5.
The Devils dogged a bullet in the fifth when Stanford loaded the bases with one out. Freshman closer Zechry Zinicola came into to get a runners interference call to force a runner out and then got Jed Lowrie to ground out to first base to end the inning.
Riding the momentum of stranding the bases loaded, ASU extended its two-run lead into a six-run cushion. Junior All-American Jeff Larish hit a two-out, grand slam home run way over the right field fence to give the Sun Devils a 11-5 lead. ASU added four more runs in the seventh to pad the lead to 10 runs. Travis Buck had a two-out single to score Nick Walsh and Asanovich followed with a three-run home run to left field.
Larish finished the day 2-for-4 with four RBI. Asanovich was 2-for-6 with three RBI and junior All-American Dustin Pedroia went 2-for-5 for his 28th multi-hit game of the year. Pedroia also added his 24th double of the year. Joe Persichina (2-for-4, 2B) and Nick Cadena (2-for-2, RBI) also added multi-hit games.
The Sun Devils completed the regular season with its 26th 40-win season and the fourth under 10th year head coach Pat Murphy. ASU will not wait for the 64-team NCAA Tournament selection show held Monday morning at 9 a.m. (PT) on ESPN2.
Game Notes: Dustin Pedroia recorded his 28th multi-hit game of the year... he also hit his 24th double of the year and 71st of his career. Arizona State 15, Stanford 5 (May 30, 2004 at Stanford, Calif.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Arizona State....... 322 004 400 - 15 14 0 (40-16, 13-11 Pac-10) Stanford............ 400 100 000 - 5 8 4 (44-12, 16-8 Pac-10) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitchers: Arizona State - Bordes; Andes(1); Blake(2); Marotz(3); Webb(4); Cassa(5); Zinicola(5). Stanford - Leva; Reynolds(2); Holler(3); Jecmen(6); Duda(7); Manship(8). Win-Andes(5-1) Save-Zinicola(7) Loss-Leva(5-2) T-3:46 A-2987 HR ASU - Asanovich (5); Larish (7). HR STAN - Fuld (4). --Sun Devil Baseball--