Feb. 21, 2009
TEMPE, Ariz. - Six home runs, including two each from Jason Kipnis and Carlos Ramirez, helped the No. 6 Arizona State University baseball team to a 13-5 victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the opening game of a doubleheader Saturday at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The Sun Devils improved to 2-0 on the season with the win.
Kipnis went 3-3 with two walks, as he has reached base in all 10 of his plate appearances in the first two games of the season. Ramirez also had three hits, and his two home runs were the first two of his Sun Devil career. Kole Calhoun and Abe Ruiz also hit their first career home runs in the victory.
Mike Leake started on the mound and earned the victory, going six innings and allowing just two hits and one run with seven strikeouts. Tony Annino and Jake Borup, both making their collegiate debuts, combined to pitch the last three innings.
The Panthers scored a run in the top of the first to take an early lead, but the Sun Devils answered in the bottom half of the inning with a solo homer by Kipnis and a two-run shot by Calhoun.
Ramirez hit a solo home run in the third, and the Devils then added four more runs in the fourth inning on a Kipnis three-run homer and another Ramirez solo shot. Johnny Ruettiger had an RBI single in the fifth to extend the lead to 9-1.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee scored two unearned runs in the seventh, but ASU answered again in the eighth, as Abe Ruiz hit a first-pitch, pinch-hit grand slam to make it 13-3. The Panthers added two more in the ninth to cap off the scoring.