If there was any indication from the rankings that this weekend's series between two of the top teams in the Pac-10 would be interesting, a split of two extra-inning games put an exclamation mark on that.
In an epic 11-inning battle Saturday, the No. 1 Sun Devils came away 7-6 victors on the strength of a Dennis Wyrick bases-loaded single to top the No. 6 Cardinal.
"With two strikes, I was just trying to make something happen, and luckily it went our way tonight," said Wyrick, who was 3-for-6 with 3 RBI.
Trailing 5-0 in the sixth inning, the Sun Devils began chipping away at the Cardinal lead with three runs in the sixth and two in the seventh.
Andre Ethier's bases-loaded sacrifice fly broke the scoring drought before Wyrick tripled down the right field line, bringing home two more. Overall, Wyrick was 6-for-10 over the weekend and is now 14-for-26 in his career against Stanford pitching.
"Their pitching staff is very strong so to come out and be able to have good at bats against pitchers like that is a good thing," he said.
In the seventh inning, ASU (32-4, 1-1 Pac-10) tagged on another pair of runs to tie the game at five. A single by Travis Buck plated Rod Allen and Jeremy West grounded out with the bases loaded to score Dustin Pedroia.
Stanford (15-8, 1-1) battled back to regain the lead in the top of the eighth, but a great individual effort by Buck to beat out an infield single tied the game once again. With two outs and the bases full, Buck hit a high chopper to Chris Lewis at second and legged it out to score Joel Bocchi.
"The ball wasn't hit too hard and (Lewis) waited back on it so I knew I had a good chance of beating it out," Buck said.
Senior closer Ryan Schroyer picked up the win with three scoreless innings in relief, but one of the biggest performances came from senior right-hander Beau Vaughan. Despite giving up four earned runs in 3.2 innings of work, Vaughan came into a bases-loaded jam in the fifth and bailed out freshman starter Erik Averill. With nobody out, Vaughan enticed a double play from Carlos Quentin and struck out Ryan Garko to stop the damage.
"Vaughan was huge, his numbers didn't indicate it but he was huge," ASU head coach Pat Murphy said. "The pitching top to bottom was pretty special. That was the difference."
Stanford struck out 14 times in the game, a far cry from its team average of 5.1 entering the series.
Sunday's game was another thriller, with Stanford coming out on top 9-8 in 10 innings. The Cardinal led for most of the game, but two late-inning rallies by the Sun Devils knotted things up before Sanford junior center fielder Sam Fuld delivered the game-winning single with two outs in the 10th.
The Sun Devils had their opportunities to tie the game in the bottom half of the frame, but were unable to execute with runners in scoring position. With the bases loaded and one out, West struck out and Steve Garrabrants grounded to short to end the game.
The comeback excitement for the Sun Devils began in the bottom of the eighth, when Stanford's lead was 8-1. Garrabrants clubbed a two-run, pinch-hit home run and the Sun Devils pushed across two more before the conclusion of the inning to bridge the gap to 8-5. In the ninth, it was Ethier who found his stroke and launched a two-out, three-run shot over the right-field fence to tie the game.
"I was looking for something in and getting the head out, fortunately he threw it there and I put a good swing on it," said Ethier, whose numbers have suffered a bit from last year's .363 average, which was second on the 2002 squad. "It's good to hit [a home run] in that situation, but if I can stay consistent hopefully I can build from this."
After one come-from-behind win and the near completion of a second, the Sun Devils return to action today at 4:30 p.m. for the rubber match of the series.
"I don't think either of these two days we played with great poise or relentlessness," Murphy said. "We have stayed in there and we haven't quit, which is a great attribute. Now we just need a little poise."
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
