(Photo via Zina Garcia/WCSN)
TEMPE – For the second night in a row, a winnable game for Arizona State softball fell apart in the late innings after a bullpen collapse.
Arizona State (16-11, 1-4 Pac-12 Conference) came into its Saturday evening’s game against Oregon State (14-14, 3-2 Pac-12) looking to tie up the series at a win apiece. The game followed a somewhat similar pattern to the previous one. Senior right-handed starting pitcher Deborah Jones started the game off strong before running into trouble. ASU then went to the bullpen, and in a winnable situation, Jones’s relief pitcher eventually collapsed, leading to a loss.
Saturday, it was senior right-hander Mac Osborne who was called upon in relief. She had a good start to her night, allowing only one hit across 2.1 innings pitched before the seventh. The seventh was when everything fell apart for Arizona State, leading to them ending up on the losing side of a 10-5 score. The pitching in the seventh was reminiscent of graduate right-hander Marissa Schuld’s struggles the previous game.
“Two different pitchers,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “They’re fifth and sixth years, they’ve been in that situation a million times, they make pitches when we call them, that’s it, we’ve got to stick to the pitching (plan).”
Osborne walked the first batter she faced in the seventh inning, senior center fielder Madi Simon. Her next batter, senior catcher Abby Doerr bunted for a single and was pinch ran for at first base by freshman outfielder Kaylee Oh. This put two runners on base with no outs in the inning. Osborne bounced back to record two outs, but she wasn’t in the clear yet with one more out still needed to secure the win and the two runners having moved up a base each.
In that two-out, two-on situation, junior first baseman Lici Campbell got a hit up the middle which scored both Simon and Oh to tie the game and take the lead.
From there, everything devolved for ASU. Back-to-back singles from junior right fielder Eliana Gottlieb and senior third baseman Grace Messmer scored Campbell. Following that, errors on back-to-back plays by Arizona State senior third baseman Kayla Lissy and freshman catcher Samantha Swan contributed to three more runs crossing the plate for Oregon State.
“We’re going to let (Osborne) finish the game,” Bartlett said. “She hasn’t pitched a ton. She needs the experience. She has got to learn to slow down in the big moment. … You can’t let one questionable call get in your head, and you feel like you have to come back and throw the ball straight over the middle of the plate to get back in the count. They’ve got to stick to the plan, trust their stuff and get back at it (tomorrow).”
Osborne finally was able to get out of the inning, but by the time she did the score was 10-5, and the momentum was fully with the Beavers.
In the bottom half of the seventh inning, all three Sun Devils that went up to the plate struck out to end the game.
Right before the disastrous top of the seventh, the bottom of the sixth was the height of the game for Arizona State. To lead off the inning, Lissy hit a home run out to center field to tie the game 4-4. Before the crowd could really settle down, graduate shortstop Alesia Denby took the very next pitch out to right-center to give Arizona State the 5-4 lead it would eventually blow.
The only other time the Sun Devils had a lead during the game was from the bottom of the second to the top of the fourth. The lead was small at 1-0 and came on a home run that just scraped over the center field wall hit by Swan on the first pitch she saw.
Arizona State blew that small lead in the top of the fourth inning after sophomore designated player Maddy Clark and Simon hit a pair of two-run home runs, driving Jones out of the game. Clark’s home run scored Messmer, who walked in the previous plate appearance, and Simon’s scored junior second baseman Kiki Escobar, who tripled after Clark’s home run.
Something abnormally absent from ASU’s strategy to score was stolen bases. The Sun Devils came into the weekend series leading the Pac-12 in steals, but in Saturday’s game, only one steal was attempted when graduate first baseman Audrey LeClair was thrown out trying to swipe second base in the third inning.
“Speed really shouldn’t slump,” Bartlett said. “Whatever we’ve got going on that they’re overthinking their starts or something at first base, we’re certainly going to have a conversation. … We’re a fast offense. We’re a high contact rate team, and we’re going to turn it into a track meet.”
After the four-run top half of the fourth inning that made the game 4-1, Arizona State scored two in the bottom half of the inning. A double to left field from freshman second baseman Libby Walsh scored Denby and sophomore right fielder Tanya Windle.
Walsh as well as freshman left fielder Jada Lewis each picked up a hit during the game, and Swan picked up two including her aforementioned home run.
Despite the loss, the freshman gave reason to look forward to the future.
“Excited for the future of the program,” Bartlett said. “Those are all three young ones, so they’re starting to earn some time. Coming up in some big moments, so certainly the silver lining for tonight.”
But despite the help from the young crop, ASU didn’t have what it took to save the series. The Sun Devils will look ahead to Saturday to, once again, steal a game and try to avoid being swept.
“You hit three home runs in a game and the reality is we just (need to) pick up the ball and execute pitches,” Bartlett said. “We scored plenty to win.”
