Categories: Arizona StateArticleSoftballTicker

Arizona State offense shuts down, Sun Devils lose two straight

(Photo:Scotty Bara)

The Arizona State softball team is known for having one of the best offenses in the nation. On Sunday that wasn’t the case as the Sun Devils were shutout for the first time all season and dropped both of their games.

In the second game of the day, Arizona State faced head coach Craig Nicholson’s former team, and the Sun Devils fell to Ball State, 3-0.

Both pitchers, Mackenzie Popescue and Nicole Steinbac,h did a great job of shutting down both offenses but Steinbach pitched a little bit better. Ball State scored the only runs of the game in the top of the seventh inning. With the bases loaded, Emily Dabkowski reached on an infield single that scored Jessica Craft. Ball State added two more runs after a Jennifer Gilbert two-run single to right.

“ We were not very good today. Our offense, which has been pretty good for the first three weeks of the season, was not very good besides one game this weekend,” Nicholson said.

Both teams had scoring opportunities in the first inning. Ball State had runners on second and third with two outs but Popescue got Audrey Bickel to fly out to end the inning. ASU had runners on first and second with one out but failed to score. Amber Freeman left the game in the first inning after an awkward slide into second base. Nicholson said after the game that Freeman has a sprained ankle and will be re-evaluated tomorrow morning.

The Sun Devils had numerous scoring chances early on, but none bigger than the fourth inning when they had Caporuscio on third with one out but couldn’t get a run across. In fact, ASU had its leadoff batter on base in the first four innings. Situations with runners in scoring position were a big problem for the Sun Devils all night as they were a disastrous 0-for-15 with RISP.

“ It’s hard to win when you leave a lot of runners on base. Right now, we are not putting all three parts of the game together,” added Nicholson. “We are talented and we will get ourselves out of it.”

Steinbach entered the game against ASU with a 3.76 era but she did a great job of keeping the Sun Devils off the scoreboard. She threw all seven innings, allowing four hits, and tossing three strikeouts. Popescue’s day was great until the seventh and she finished the day with seven innings of work, three runs allowed, and four strikeouts.

“ This weekend humbled us,” said Popescue. “We are going to go out and play better. We have to take care of the little things and the game will take care of us.”

The Sun Devils had one final opportunity in the bottom of the seventh but couldn’t capitalize with the bases loaded.

In their first game of the day, the Sun Devils lost to the No. 19 Minnesota Golden Gophers 3-2 as a base running mistake in the sixth inning cost the Sun Devils a victory.

Sara Moulton picked up her 10^th victory for the Gophers, throwing seven complete innings, allowing four hits, one earned run, and eight strikeouts. Dallas Escobedo received the loss and is now 7-2 on the season.

The Sun Devils travel to Cal State Fullerton next weekend to participate in the Judi Garman Classic.

Notes:

ASU will play Detroit tomorrow at 7 p.m. as part of a make-up from this weekend’s rainouts.
Last regular season shutout loss: May 11,2012 vs. Cal. (5-0)
Last shutout loss vs. an unranked opponent: March 17,2011 vs. Michigan (1-0)
Last back-to-back losses in nonconference play: March 18, 2010 vs. Texas (1-0), March 18, 2010 vs. Oklahoma (5-4)

You can reach Julian Lopez on Twitter @juliansdayoff22 or via email at jlopez27@asu.edu