ASU's Ike Davis and UC Irvine pitcher Scott Gorgen had differing accounts of the waning seconds leading up to Davis' home run off the sophomore in Saturday's opening game of the College World Series for both teams.
Neither disagreed, however, that Davis' leadoff home run to open the eighth was as big as it gets, breaking a tie game and propelling ASU to a 5-4 win at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Gorgen entered the matchup having only surrendered one run in his past 37 innings and had thrown 16 consecutive scoreless innings to help the Anteaters to their first-ever CWS trip. While he took full responsibility for the first two home runs he allowed - a three-run shot from Matt Spencer in the second and CJ Retherford's game-tying homer in the fifth - he added that Davis just guessed right on a 1-1 changeup.
"Best one I threw all day," said Gorgen, who dropped to 12-3 on the year.
Even UC Irvine coach Dave Serrano was second-guessing himself on calling for the pitch, but Davis said he wasn't looking off-speed, got crossed up and reacted quickly enough to put the barrel on the ball.
"I was sitting fastball and he left a changeup over the middle," Davis said.
ASU's power barrage, which accounted for all five runs, puts the Sun Devils into Monday's 4 p.m. contest against defending CWS champion Oregon State.
UC Irvine will face Cal State Fullerton in an elimination game at 11 a.m.
Coach Pat Murphy, whose ASU program improved to 7-3 in its third trip to Omaha during his tenure, said his team battled through the first-game jitters just like UC Irvine. Although seven Sun Devils had played in Omaha before, only one - Andrew Romine - was a full-time player on the 2005 team.
"We were just as wide-eyed as anybody," Murphy said.
Despite hitting three batters to bring his season total up to 16, freshman pitcher Mike Leake settled down after a fourth inning to forget. The Anteaters sent all nine batters to the plate, collecting five hits in a row and plated four runs to turn a 3-0 deficit into a one-run lead.
"They were trying to get on the plate and make things happen," Leake said. "The mentality just wasn't there for that inning."
Only one UC Irvine hitter reached base in the next three innings on Leake before Jason Jarvis took the ball in the eighth and was nearly perfect in earning his second win.
"The kids are getting better and starting to believe a little more," Murphy said.
At the end of the day, the majority of the 19,638 in attendance will remember ASU's opener for one thing: Power. Spencer got his team started, depositing a 2-0 fastball from Gorgen halfway up into the right field bleachers after Kiel Roling and Davis had walked to give the Sun Devils the early cushion.
Spencer seemed at ease with the grand stage after making it to last year's CWS final with North Carolina. More surprisingly, though, may have been the effort of Retherford, who homered in his third at-bat to give him four postseason long balls after recording none during the regular season.
Murphy said Retherford, who has just 50 at-bats on the year could have easily had two more in his first two plate appearances that ended with flyouts to center field.
"We hit some balls hard that got caught," he said. "In our yard, those are home runs."
TONIGHT'S GAME
WHEN: 4 p.m.
WHO: Oregon State
WHERE: ESPN 2
