Sophomore second baseman Eric Sogard thought he got under a 2-2 pitch delivered by USC freshman Tommy Milone in the first inning of Saturday afternoon's game.
Instead, the ball carried over the right field wall, and the No. 13 ASU baseball team had an early 2-0 lead on No. 20 USC.
"I definitely popped it up," Sogard said. "I hit it decent and there was a little breeze there, so I got lucky."
Sogard wasn't done there, as he hit another two-run homer in the fourth, giving ASU (27-11, 6-3 Pac-10) a 5-4 advantage. However, it took until the bottom of the ninth before the Sun Devils were able to secure an 8-7 win and their second consecutive series victory over rival USC (22-16, 8-4) this weekend at Packard Stadium.
"This weekend was like a super-regional," sophomore pitcher Josh Satow said. "It was the same intensity."
Satow came into a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the sixth. While he let one of the inherited runners score on a sacrifice, which tied the game at seven, the southpaw was lights out the rest of the game. He allowed only three more Trojans to reach base, but forced two double plays and earned his second win of the season.
"It was supposed to be an inside fastball, because I was trying to get it in on his hands and he ended up hitting it right back to me," Satow said of a double play in the eighth.
"I definitely knew our hitters were going to come around."
They did just that in the bottom of the ninth.
Sophomore Joe Persichina started it off with a leadoff walk. After a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Rocky Laguna, USC reliever Shawn Olsen intentionally walked sophomore J.J. Sferra to set up the double play. Senior Frank Mesa then pinch-hit and drew another walk to load the bases for junior Colin Curtis.
With the game on the line, USC coach Mike Gillespie brought center fielder Darin Vieira to the infield grass in an attempt to keep the winning run from scoring.
"It kind of confused me because my original plan was to hit it up the middle and then all of a sudden there was an outfielder there, so I had to change that up," Curtis said. "I just laughed and looked at [coach Pat] Murphy and I was like, 'Are they allowed to do that?'"
Curtis then bounced the second pitch he saw over the first baseman's head and into right field, scoring the winning run.
"I just got a nice little bounce off our rock-hard infield and things worked out pretty good," Curtis said.
The victory gave ASU the series win after blowing Thursday night's game by giving up five runs in the ninth. The Sun Devils won 10-9 on Friday on a bloop single by Seth Dhaenens in the 10th inning.
ASU's next game will be today at 4:30 p.m. against Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. ASU won the first meeting between the teams on February 28 in Tempe behind a five-RBI performance by freshman designated hitter Ike Davis.
Both teams are undecided on whom their starting pitchers will be.
Reach the reporter at thomas.j.kelley@asu.edu.
