Pac-10 champs: Baseball beats Stanford to clinch outright conference crown

The Arizona State Sun Devils wrapped up the 2010 regular season style, clinching the outright Pac-10 Championship with an 8-6 victory over Stanford at Sunken Diamond. The win gave ASU the series win in Palo Alto for the first time since 1997. The Devils end the regular season 47-8, 20-7 in Pac-10 play.

It was a see-saw game with each team taking, then relinquishing leads before Arizona State was able to rally to re-gain the lead then quell one final Stanford rally to pick up the victory. The Sun Devils scored two in the seventh to take the lead, then added a run in both the eighth and ninth to finish things off. Brady Rodgers came out of the bullpen to throw 3.1 innings and earn the win, with Jordan Swagerty picking up his 14th save of the season in the ninth.

Drew Maggi led off the game with a solo homer to left, his third of the season. But the lead was short lived, as Adam Gaylord blasted a two-run shot off Borup in the second to make it 2-1. Maggi would strike again in the third, homering for the second time to tie things up at 2. ASU would take the lead again in the top of the fourth on a Riccio Torrez two-run homer to make it 4-2.

Once again, the Cardinal battled right back to re-gain the lead. Stanford scored three in the bottom of the fourth, two unearned, to go ahead 5-4. It stayed that way until the seventh inning, when Stanford quickly recorded two outs to start the inning. It looked like ASU would go down 1-2-3, but Raoul Torrez induced an error by shortstop Jake Schlander to keep the inning alive. That would spark a rally that was capped by a Zack MacPhee two-run single that gave the Devils the lead at 6-5. They would add an insurance in the eighth on a Deven Marrero RBI single, but Stanford would draw to within one with a run in the eighth.

Riccio Torrez doubled home MacPhee from first in the ninth to make it 8-6, then Swagerty struck out three in the ninth to nail down the save and clinch the Pac-10 title. Stanford ended the game with the tying runs on second and third.

Riccio Torrez went 3-4 with three RBI, while Drew Maggi also collected three hits. Xorge Carrillo, in his first start at catcher since March 16, went 2-4.

The NCAA will announce the 16 Regional host sites tomorrow afternoon, then release the full 64-team field on Monday morning.