Wallace Helps Devils Hold On To Beat LMU

Brett Wallace continued his power surge with a three run homer to put Arizona State in front and they wouldn’t look back as the Devils rode Mike Leake to a 9-5 victory over Loyola Marymount in game one of a three game non-conference series at Packard Stadium.

The Lions got to Leake in the first inning, jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Michael Glomb singled with one out and Angelo Songco connected for his 11th home run of the season, giving Loyola Marymount a 2-0 early lead.

ASU would answer right back in the bottom half with a homer of their own. Ryan Sontag led off with a single and Jason Kipnis walked to set up Wallace. The junior third baseman gave the Devils the lead with a three-run-homer to right field. The long ball was Wallace’s 16th of the season, matching his career high.

The Devils would add to their lead in the fourth off of Lions starter Martin Viramontes. Fresh off of his dominant pitching performance, Matt Newman started the rally with a double to left and would come around to score when Raoul Torrez doubled to left. With two outs, Ryan Sontag singled to right to score Torrez and ASU had a 5-2 lead.

Mike Leake would help himself in the fifth, with an RBI single that scored Petey Paramore, who doubled with one out. Leake advanced to second on a wild pitch and Kiel Roling walked before Matt Newman picked up his second hit of the day with a single up the middle plating Leake making it 7-2. Kiel Roling would score on a wild pitch later in the inning and it appeared the Devils had blown it open at 8-2.

Leake would allow an unearned run in the sixth, his last inning of work. Matt Koch singled to start the inning and Andy Preston singled after two consecutive fielders’ choices. Kiel Roling made an error on a ball hit by Sean Dovel allowing Koch to score and make it 8-3 Devils.

Ryan Sontag walked to start the sixth for ASU and advanced to third on a single by Jason Kipnis. Brett Wallace would collect his fourth RBI of the day with a sacrifice fly to left increasing the lead to 9-3.

The Lions would try to claw back in it with two runs in the seventh against Dustin Brader. A.J. LaMonda and Michael Glomb both walked to start the frame and they advanced to second and third on the first passed ball of the season committed by Petey Paramore. Angelo Songco sent a fly ball to left that was deep enough to score LaMonda and make it 9-4 ASU. Kyle Brule got Ryan Wheeler to hit a sac fly for out number two, before Tommy Rafferty came on to strike out Andy Preston to end the inning.

Mike Leake allowed two earned runs, didn’t walk a batter and struck out six in six innings to pick up his eighth win of the season. Tommy Rafferty pitched the final 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn his third save of the season.

Wallace finished 2-4 with four RBIs and four other Devils joined him with two hits. Matt Newman, Ryan Sontag, Petey Paramore, Raoul Torrez and Wallace each had multiple hit evenings.

ASU gained ground in the Pac 10, even though they were playing a non-conference game. Stanford has dropped their first two games to Cal, giving ASU a 1.5 game lead in the Pac 10.

The Devils will send Seth Blair to the mound tomorrow in game two of the three-game set. The Lions will counter with sophomore Xavier Esquivel (4-4, 6.23). First pitch is scheduled at 6 PM.