You ever get that feeling you can’t be beaten? You know, the one where you just project full confidence and walk around like nothing can stop you?
Arizona State junior lefty Lindsay Lopez had that feeling flowing during Friday’s clash against No. 5 UCLA.
Lopez tossed a complete performance in the 6-1 Sun Devil victory, going the distance at Farrington Stadium. Lopez struck out seven Bruins and allowed only one run off of six hits. The lefty’s ability to keep the Bruins in check quickly became the story of the night for the No. 11 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils.
“Just keeping them off balance,” Lopez said. “I think that was really the key today.”
Lopez snaked her way through one of America’s best lineups all evening, throwing her eighth complete game this season. Tossing the kind of outing, against the quality opponent that the Bruins are, is exactly what Arizona State head coach Trisha Ford wanted to see.
“I think Lindsey threw her off-speed really well tonight, Ford told reporters. “I think when Lindsey throws her off-speed, along with her lefty magic, as I like to call it, good things happen.”
Ford preached about Lopez’s growth and confidence, both of which were on full display Friday night in Tempe.
“I think she’s just continued to get better and better and better,” Ford explained about Lopez’s growth. “She started off this year, she would say, a little rough, but it was just a matter of time to kind of get her feel back. I think Lindsay knows that she can beat anybody in the country.”
For any pitcher, it always helps when you’ve got a defense behind you that is routinely providing weekly “web-gem” type highlights.
“I love it, and knowing that they have my back and that they will be there when I turn my back, I just love it,” Lopez stated.
Lopez got some of that help with a pair of those big-time, jaw-dropping, defensive plays coming at the beginning and end of the ball game. Right-fielder Yannira Acuña made a diving play in foul-ball territory in the second inning to earn an out for Lopez on UCLA’s redshirt sophomore center-fielder Maya Brady. However, junior shortstop Alynnah Torres corralled the biggest defensive play of the game, performing a back-peddling and diving catch for the game’s final out.
Acuña and Torres helped out on the offensive side as well, combining to go four for eight against a pair of Bruins pitchers. That offensive production helped get more momentum for the Sun Devils. For Lopez, it was still business as usual.
“As a pitcher, I always go in when I’m pitching and say ‘the score is 0-0,’ that’s the key to my mind,” Lopez explained about her approach.
Lopez has pitched well all season long for Arizona State, her 9-2 record and 1.48 ERA coming into Friday’s Top-15 battle can pretty much prove that.
It was this game where the stoic ace of the Sun Devil staff finally flashed the toughness and emotion necessary to get big wins as the season hits the home stretch.
“She’s really worked on her stuff upstairs and has just had huge leaps and bounds with her mental side of things,” Ford stated. “She’s really concentrated because she really wants to be the best.”
That increased mettle was on full display in the visitor’s half of the fifth inning. With runners on the corners, after a double from UCLA redshirt junior pitcher Megan Faraimo and a flash of superb speed from redshirt junior left-fielder Kelli Godin on a bunt, and one out, Lopez did it all on her own, forcing Bruins leadoff hitter redshirt senior first baseman Kinsley Washington into a short hit ball right back to her for the innings second out before striking out redshirt senior shortstop Briana Perez immediately after. Something that didn’t surprise Ford.
“Yeah, I mean, she’s just been in these situations and she pitched every single series last year and against every opponent,” Ford stated. “I just think she’s learned from it.”
Moments like that are the reason Lopez has pitched multiple times in a majority of the team’s series this spring.
It’s why you will likely see her get the ball in her hands once more this weekend, even despite the full outing on Friday.
