Devils Pound Huskies Behind Leake

Huskies’ pitcher Jorden Merry probably wishes he didn’t get the ball on Friday night against the Arizona State Sun Devils. Merry came into the game a perfect 8-0 with a Pac-10 leading 2.31 ERA, but the Devils jumped on him and the rest of the Huskies’ Pac-10 leading pitching staff early and often, pounding out 20 hits, while Mike Leake shut down Washington’s offense leading ASU to a 13-3 rout.

Jason Kipnis got the Devils rolling with a one-out double in the first and after Brett Wallace flew out, Ike Davis walked in his first at-bat after returning to the ASU lineup. Petey Paramore got ASU on the board with a single to left that plated Kipnis and made it 1-0 Devils. Matt Newman walked to load the bases and Kiel Roling cleared them with a double down the right field line and ASU held an early 4-0 lead against the Husky ace.

ASU would add onto their lead in the second, plating two more against Merry. Greg Bordes led off with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Ryan Sontag singled to send Bordes to third and Jason Kipnis doubled again to score Sontag and ASU led 5-0. Brett Wallace added an RBI in the inning to make it 6-0.

The Devils would keep adding to their lead in the third, blowing it open with three more runs. Petey Paramore led off with a single and advanced to second on an error by Merry. After Matt Neman sacrificed Paramore to third, Kiel Roling picked up his fourth RBI of the day with a single back up the middle. Ryan Sontag would chase Merry with a single that scored two and gave ASU a 9-0 lead after three.

Merry entered Friday night’s game leading the Pac-10 with a 2.31 ERA, but allowed nine runs on ten hits in just 2 2/3 innings to pick up his first loss of the season.

ASU extended its lead to 10-0 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Marcel Champagnie. Ike Davis, who returned to the lineup for the first time since April 25th, led off with a double and scored on Champagnie’s fly out to center after advancing to third on a wild pitch.

The Huskies would finally get to Leake in the seventh. Troy Scott doubled to center to start the inning and advanced to third on Aaron Russell’s groundout. Brett Wilcox got the Huskies on the board with a single to left scoring Scott.

Paramore would add insult to injury with a three-run home run to left; the junior catcher finished 3-5 with 4 RBI. Roling also added 4 RBI to go along with his 4-5 evening. Ryan Sontag and Jason Kipnis each had three hits and Ike Davis added two, as ASU totaled 20 for the day.

Mike Leake allowed just one run in his eight innings of work to pick up his ninth victory of the season. The Huskies picked up two runs against ASU reliever Reyes Dorado in the ninth.

The Devils and Huskies will play Game 2 of the series tomorrow evening at 6PM. Josh Satow (6-3, 5.25) will get the ball for ASU and he will face off against Jason Erickson (3-1, 2.18).