(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
No. 13 ASU Softball came into Friday night’s game against Stanford riding high. And for good reason, you would be too if you’d just bludgeoned your cross-town neighbors by 21 runs a few nights earlier. Their momentum was quickly extinguished by the Cardinal, as Stanford blitzed sophomore Lindsay Lopez and the Sun Devils in a convincing 6-2 win Friday night at Farrington.
“I thought they were grittier than we were tonight,” Trisha Ford said. “They wanted it more at the beginning, and never took the foot off the gas. They didn’t hit a ton of balls hard but they were efficient and played clean.”
A second inning Stanford offensive onslaught immediately put the Sun Devils on their heels. Lopez was barreled up early and often in the first two frames, giving up five runs on six hits as the Cardinal dugout erupted time after time. Four of Stanford’s five runs came in the second, as they batted around. Singles from Teaghan Cowles, Eleni Spiraki and Aly Kaneshiro brought runs home. Lopez didn’t receive much help from her defense either, as ASU committed three errors on the evening, leading to two unearned runs.
We can’t give teams 4-5 outs an inning and expect to win many games in this conference,” Ford said. “I know that and they know that. It’s all about our focus and mental toughness on defense, I’m confident in our ability to bring it defensively tomorrow.”
After tossing a scoreless third inning, Lopez again ran into trouble in the top of the fourth. A leadoff walk was followed by a sacrifice bunt, bringing up Eleni Spirakis. Spirakis squared up a 1-0 fastball from Lopez, launching it out to right field. The solo shot was just Stanford’s 12th of the year. The unlikely blast, Spirakis’s first of the season, was symbolic of a night that just wasn’t going ASU’s way. Stanford would take the 6-2 lead to the bank, completing the upset victory in Tempe.
ASU chipped away at the Cardinal lead in the second and third innings. Sophomore outfielder Jazmine Hill laced an RBI double down the third base line with two outs in the second, scoring sophomore shortstop Alynah Torres. In the third, a Cardinal error allowed ASU to push across its second and final run. When it was all said and done, Stanford hurler Alana Vawter dominated the Sun Devils, striking out six while allowing just four hits in the complete game effort.
“We weren’t ourselves today, we didn’t cash in on any opportunities,” senior Kindra Hackbarth said. “We need to let the past be the past and come back tomorrow with some adjustments and get the win.”
Hackbarth was the only Sun Devil to look comfortable at the plate against Vawter. She put together two nice at bats, nd logged a single in the third. Sophomore Yannira Acuna added two hits, with Hill’s RBI double accounting for the fourth.
ASU will look to respond tomorrow, as they host Stanford again in a doubleheader with games at 2:00 and 5:00 p.m.
“This one’s gonna sting, it will hurt for sure,” Ford said. “My focus and our focus just has to be on tomorrow.”
