It was a grand night for the No. 4 Sun Devil baseball team as it defeated Oklahoma 9-4 in large part due to a record setting bases-loaded home run.
Junior Rod Allen hit his second pinch-hit grand slam of the season in the seventh, and the Sun Devils tied the NCAA record for grand slams in a season with 12 en route to the victory.
"I just wanted to see something early [in the count] and get it to the outfield," said Allen, who now has six home runs and is sixth on the team with 40 RBI. "He just happened to throw me a first-pitch curveball. I put a good swing on it and it happened to go out."
The game was tied starting the seventh until the Sun Devils (43-9, 10-5 Pac-10) broke it open with six runs in the frame. The first came off the bat of sophomore shortstop Dustin Pedroia when he singled up the middle to make it 3-2. The RBI was his third of the game after a run-scoring fielder's choice in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fifth. It tied his career high for RBI in a game.
Junior designated hitter Jeremy West added the sixth run of the inning with a single past a drawn-in infield after Allen's grand slam, and ASU added an insurance run in the ninth.
Senior Beau Vaughan picked up his team-leading eighth win of the year in relief, taking over for freshman Erik Averill after he allowed two runs in three innings of work.
"Erik is a freshman and he is going to make freshman mistakes," ASU head coach Pat Murphy said.
Vaughan pitched three frames himself but shut down Oklahoma (16-25, 4-15 Big-12), allowing just one hit and no runs while striking out five.
"I did a really good job locating my fastball tonight," Vaughan said. "That's what it all works off of. If I can do that, I can do a lot of other things. Fortunately, I had some pretty solid defense behind me."
For Allen, the grand slam was a big boost for the product of Desert Vista High School who's had a roller coaster ride with the Sun Devils, going in and out of the starting lineup in his three years.
"I've just got to take whatever the game gives me," he said. "I basically just try to be a good teammate, I try to come through in clutch situations and show the team that I'm ready when they need me."
The 12th grand slam for ASU this season tied the NCAA record held by Oklahoma State, set in 1996.
The Sun Devils have the next five days off and return to action Tuesday against UC Irvine at Packard Stadium.
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Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
