Feb. 10, 2007
HOUSTON, Texas - The top ten battle between #6 Arizona State and #5 Vanderbilt was as good as advertised, needing extra innings to determine the outcome. A wild pitch on an intentional walk in the tenth handed ASU their first loss of the season, 7-6 at the Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park. The loss drops the Sun Devils to 4-1 on the year.
With a man on third and one out in the tenth, Ike Davis was attempting to throw ball two of the intentional walk to Brad French, but his toss home was too high for Petey Paramore, allowing Jonathan White to score the winning run.
For the fifth straight game, the Sun Devils got their offense started early, scoring three times in the first. Ike Davis knocked in the first run when his double scored Eric Sogard to make it 1-0. ASU would add two more on RBI groundouts by Petey Paramore and Kiel Roling.
Vanderbilt answered back in the third, scoring twice off starter Joey Parigi. Arizona State would add to their lead in the fourth when Roling scored after Andrew Romine grounded into a double play with the bases loaded. That made it 4-2 Devils after four. The Commodores cut it to 4-3 in the fifth, but ASU made it 5-3 on a Paramore double that scored Ryan Sontag.
Vandy erased that deficit in the seventh. After a one out double, Jeff Urlaub was brought in to replace Adam Bailey. Urlaub gave up a single that made it 5-4, bringing up the Commodores All-American third baseman Pedro Alvarez. Alvarez took Urlaub's first offering deep to right, homering off the foul pole to make it 6-5.
The Sun Devils tied it at six in the eighth on an Ike Davis sacrifice fly to center. After Sogard walked and went to third on a Brett Wallace single, Davis sent a sinking liner to centerfield. The centerfielder made the grab, but Sogard was able to tag and score to even things up.
Alvarez struck again in the ninth, doubling off the scoreboard in left. After a pitching change and an intentional walk, CJ Retherford made an incredible play at third to send the game to extra innings. Vandy's Dominic de la Osa sent a screamer to the hot corner, but Retherford dove and made the stop, calmly tagged third to force out Alvarez and threw out de la Osa to end the threat and the inning. After the Devils failed to score in the top half of the tenth, Vandy scored on the wild pitch to pick up the win.
Parigi lasted five innings, allowing three runs on four hits while walking five. Bailey lasted 1.1, allowing a run and a hit. Dustin Brader threw 1.2 innings, allowing only a single hit.
Eric Sogard went 3-4 and walked twice, while Paramore and Roling each contributed two hits. Paramore knocked in two runs while Roling had one RBI. Ike Davis added two RBI of his own.
The Devils will finish up their trip to Houston tomorrow morning, when they take on the Houston Cougars at 10 a.m. Arizona time. Arizona State returns to Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark on Thursday night at 7 p.m., when they host Missouri.