Satow Pitches Devils Past LMU

If the Arizona State Sun Devils are going to compete for a national championship, they are going to need the Josh Satow that showed up on Sunday night, not the pitcher that they had seen previously this season. The senior lefthander tossed six strong innings, allowing just one run leading the Devils (40-9) to a 10-3 victory over Loyola Marymount (22-28) at Packard Stadium.

ASU Head Coach Pat Murphy had originally said that he planned on resting Satow over the course of the non-conference series and that if he saw action it would be on Monday in the finale of the series. Murphy decided to go back on that statement and send his senior out on Sunday and Satow didn’t disappoint in leading ASU to its 40th win for the fifth time in six years.

The game was close early on until the Devils exploded for six runs in the fourth. Jason Kipnis, fresh off an amazing catch against the centerfield fence in the top half of the inning, started the rally with a double to center. Brett Wallace followed with a single to right, sending Kipnis to third and Petey Paramore walked to load the bases. Lions’ starter Xavier Esquivel then walked Matt Newman to force in a run and make it 1-0 ASU.

Mike Leake made it 2-0 on an RBI groundout that scored Wallace. Kiel Roling sent a single to left that scored both Newman and Paramore and made it 4-0 Devils. Marcel Champagnie then singled to left and Raoul Torrez made it 5-0 with an RBI double to leftfield. Ryan Sontag grounded into a fielders’ choice that cut Champagnie at the plate, but Pat Murphy would call for the double steal and Torrez stole home to make it 6-0.

ASU would blow it wide open in the sixth, scoring four times to increase their lead to 10-0. Mike Leake got things going with a double to center and advanced to third on a single by Roling. Raoul Torrez would drive in a run with an RBI groundout and Jason Kipnis also would add an RBI on a single to right. Brett Wallace capped the inning with a ringing double to left that drove in two.

Satow would give way to Jason Franzblau after walking Kyle Spraker to start the seventh. Franzblau got Jonathon Johnson to pop up to third, but Brett Wallace dropped the ball allowing everyone to be safe. After a wild pitch, Michael Glomb made the error costly by lining a single to right scoring Spraker and A.J. LaMonda also singled to right that scored Johnson, cutting ASU’s lead to 6-2. Angelo Songco would double home LaMonda to make it 6-3, but that was the last of the Lion offense as Franzblau shut them down the rest of the way.

Franzblau worked the final three innings, allowing no earned runs and struck out two to pick up his first save of the season.

The Devils added to their lead in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Kiel Roling, scoring Matt Newman who doubled to start the inning. Roling drove in three runs for the Devils on three hits. Wallace and Torrez also added two hits to go along with their two RBIs and Jason Kipnis drove in one run and went 2-4.

Satow allowed just one run in six innings on just three hits and only walked three en route to his sixth win of the season.

The Devils and Lions will conclude their series tomorrow night at 6PM. Seth Blair is likely to get the ball for ASU.