arcgis 10.0 - Converting XYZ files (with regularly spaced xy) to ESRI GRID format?

Normally consultants (LiDAR survey) provide me with data to my specifications; already in ESRI GRID or ASCII GRID format. This way LiDAR data can be easily used with ArcGIS. This time I only have xyz files (i.e., with regular spaced xy coordinates).

Previously, I would use a utility by Min-Lang Huang named GridBatch that would convert XYZ to ASCII GRID then to ESRI GRID files. Unfortunately, the utility is crashing since I upgraded my machine to W7 64bit and ArcGIS to version 10.

Is there another way to batch convert LiDAR surface XYZ data to ESRI GRID files?

(Convert to points -> Interpolate is an option I would like to avoid considering there are 300+ tiles to convert).