Nice way to start boys.

Some highlights:

• Josh Spence - 6 shutout innings.
• Kyle Brule pitched the 3 remaining innings and let up 3 unearned run (Leake dropped a fly ball playing the field)
• Matt Newman went 3-4 with a HR and 5 RBI
• Jason Kipnis (preseason second team All-American) went 4-4 with 4 runs and 2 RBI
• 5 Sun Devils - Calhoun, Ramirez, Ruez, Ruttiger, and Maggi - drove in their first career RBIs

Other baseball notes:

• ASU Freshman Johnny Ruetigger is the newphew of Notre Dame movie star "Rudy"
• ASU is a kick ass place to go for baseball, and Pat Murphy is stunned that ASU was picked by coaches to win the Pac-10

Josh Holliday, ASU's second year recruiting coordinator :

The tradition, there's been great baseball for years and years and years," Holliday said. "The leader, Coach (Pat) Murphy, teaches our players how to play the game the right way and promotes the team environment. The location ... it's just a really attractive set of circumstances to get a chance to be a part of."


•  And Murphy on his young, #1 2009 recruiting team:
  

"We have the least experience of any team (in the conference)," Murphy said. "We might have the least experience of any team in college baseball."

• Really interesting part about all the players we have lost to the draft, and makes you wonder about what could have been in terms of ASU baseball's legacy....
  
  

  Prince Fielder, Jimmy Rollins, Paul Konerko, Shea Hillenbrand and Dontrelle Willis highlight the list of players who turned professional over playing at ASU.

  "It's interesting," Murphy said. "We probably get hit harder than anybody else, but it's the price of doing business. It can be a little tricky. You just try not think of how much you've lost. If you think about it and harp on it, it's a built-in excuse."

  But the mind does wander.

  Murphy lost six players in the first round last year - Davis and Wallace, as well as four first-round draft picks that committed to ASU but signed professionally (No. 3 pick Eric Hosmer, No. 6 pick Kyle Skipworth, No. 16 pick Brett Lawrie, and No. 42 pick Jaff Decker) - not to mention Paramore and another recruit who went in the second round.

  "Look at how good we could have been," Murphy said. "We're the king of losing kids."

  So true Murph, so true.