Sun Devils survive scare as Wildcats loom

The Arizona State baseball team heads into the regular season's stretch run looking like its usual heavy-hitting self.

And the fourth-ranked Sun Devils needed every bit of their offense Monday night, as they concluded nonconference play with a 12-10 victory against Loyola Marymount at Packard Stadium in Tempe.

SLIDESHOW: ASU beats Loyola Marymount 12-10

Pac-10 series against Washington and at rival Arizona are on tap as ASU eyes a second straight conference title.

"It's going to be fun," said coach Pat Murphy, whose team leads Stanford by a game in the Pac-10 standings. "One of our goals is to win the conference, and we're in a position to make a run for it. But we have two good teams left."

The ninth inning was not much fun for ASU (41-9), as the Lions scored seven two-out runs to get back in the game.

Murphy removed reliever Tommy Rafferty with one out in the ninth inning. Right-hander Kyle Brule got the second out, but the Lions then made ASU sweat. After Angelo Sonco belted a three-run homer to left-center, reliever Dustin Brader came in and got the final out for his second save of the year.

"We wanted to get Kyle work, and he's been good for us all year," Murphy said. "He gave up a couple of scratch hits, they get some runs, and before you know it, it's a tight game. It looked like we were in for it, but Brader was able to come in and close it down."

Rafferty allowed a run on one hit in 21/3 innings of relief to earn his 11th victory in as many decisions this season. He is tied for the national lead in wins with three others: Aaron Crow of Missouri, Bryan Cryer of New Orleans and Oscar Luna of Oral Roberts.

"I've been in the right place at the right time a lot," Rafferty said. "It seems when I come in, the team swings really well and gets runs in."

Freshman right-hander Seth Blair made his pitch for the No.3 spot in ASU's rotation, allowing one run in four innings of work. He scattered seven hits and might not have been scored on if shortstop Mike Leake hadn't misplayed a potential inning-ending double-play ball in the fourth inning.

Leake avoided an error on the play by throwing to first for an out. Blair induced a groundout by the next hitter and departed after 63 pitches.

The fourth-inning run by Loyola (22-29) tied the score at 1-all, but the tie was short-lived, as ASU third baseman Brett Wallace led off the bottom half of the frame with his 17th home run of the season.

The Sun Devils added three more runs before the inning ended, with two of them scoring on first baseman Kiel Roling's triple. Roling, who struggled for much of the season's first half, had three hits to raise his average to .319.

"It's nice to be off the slumping skid and back to how I thought I would be hitting all year," Roling said.

"Lately, I've been able to go out there and give the team a lift and help us win."

Outfielders Ryan Sontag and Jason Kipnis added three hits each.