March 28, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. -
By Matt Storey
Top ranked Arizona State opened its Pac-10 season with a 16-5 victory over USC Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 4,371 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The Sun Devils improve to 23-1 with the win and moved to 1-0 in conference play.
Tommy Rafferty earned the win and moved to 4-0 on the season with 1.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen in relief of starter Josh Satow. Seth Blair then earned his first career save after pitching the final three innings.
The Sun Devils got all their offense by scoring in each of the first five innings. Petey Paramore had an RBI single in the first, and Rocky Laguna drove in a run with a double to right center.
Marcel Champagnie's single and Raoul Torrez's sacrifice bunt each brought in a run in the third, and the Devils then added four more in the fourth to take an 8-0 lead.
USC scored three runs in the fifth, but ASU answered with eight runs in the bottom half of the inning, including an Ike Davis two-run double, Kiel Roling's three-run double and Ryan Sontag's two-run triple.
Paramore led the offense with four hits, while Davis, Kipnis, Roling and Laguna all had two hits each. Both of the hits Davis recorded were doubles, bringing his season total to 16.
The Sun Devils host USC again tomorrow, with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark.