(Photo: Liesl Babicka/WCSN)
G Juarez spent her birthday throwing 17 strikeouts against No. 20 California Golden Bears in a 4-2 win with two home runs coming from redshirt senior Marisa Stankiewicz.
“Coming up to this series we prepped a lot and we knew what their pitches they were going to throw and that’s all we worked on the entire week,” said Stankiewicz. “I think that the prepping really helps myself and a lot of the other girls who barreled up on the balls.”
The Arizona State softball team traveled to Berkeley to take on Cal in their first on the road Pac-12 series of the season.
Skylar McCarty started off the game with the perfect opportunity in the top of the first inning to hit a grand slam, but struck out to Cal’s starting pitcher, Kamalani Dung.
Juarez struck out two of the three batters she faced in the first inning, only the beginning of what lead to 17 strikeouts. She was only two strike outs away from breaking the ASU record of strike outs in a single game.
Back in 2013, No. 3 ASU faced Portland State where D Escobedo threw 19 strike outs.
“I think G did great today, lights out, good birthday present for her and she didn’t feel as great as she did this past weekend, so I am really proud of her to come out like she did,” said head coach Trisha Ford.
Leading off the breezy second inning, Stankiewicz came up to bat to then nail the ball straight into the left field bleachers to make the game 1-0.
Before that hit, Stankiewicz hadn’t had a single hit since the series against Iowa back on March 14.
The bottom of the second and third innings looked almost identical to each other as Juarez struck out the order both times. However, the game took a quick turn for the worse for the Sun Devils in the fourth.
Cal was finally able to crack through on Juarez as senior Jazmyn Jackson hit a single into right field, the first hit of the game for the Bears. Defensively, the Sun Devils started to have some miscues.
Lindsay Rood got walked and then Ford came out to the mound to give Juarez and her infield a pep talk. Juarez turned around and threw a strikeout right afterwards.
Kobie Pettis hit a groundball to Stankiewicz in which she was unable to field, so Cal was able to score, tying the game 1-1. The Sun Devils and Juarez faced three more batters before getting out of the fourth without any more runs earned by the Bears.
“The good thing about softball is extra innings and we get another chance, it’s really important to not carry what you did on the field, into your at bats,” said Stankiewicz. “It was a little bit of a confidence killer, but at the same time being an older girl, a redshirt senior, I know that it’s going to be okay as long as I forget it and we need to make up for it.”
That inning gave Cal a handful of confidence offensively and defensively to give them hope that they could take the game away from ASU.
But, in the coming two innings, neither team could produce anything the end the game in six innings.
Jade Gortartez was the second batter up for the Devils in the seventh inning. She took Kamalani’s pitch and drilled it over the left field fence for a one-run home run to make the game 2-1.
It seemed as if the Sun Devils were in the clear and would escape the game with only playing one extra inning. The Golden Bears had a different thought in mind.
Rood hit a ground ball in which Gortarez picked up but overthrew it to home plate where the Bears were able to tie the game once again 2-2.
Redshirt junior Zoe Conley took over for Dung in the eighth inning. Both Conley and Juarez dominated the mound throwing a combine of six strike outs.
It wasn’t until the tenth inning when Nichole Chilson hit a single right past the shortstop. Stankiewicz came back up to plate and hit a two-run homer over centerfield to make the Sun Devil lead 4-2.
“We didn’t stick to our game plan, so we were a little tentative in the plate, I think we let good pitches go and swung at her pitches,” said Ford. “It’s our first road win there’s a lot of things that could’ve go along with that and we come out ready to go, we saw both their pitchers today which is good.”
Even with a difficult day defensively, Stankiewicz was able to step up and lead the Sun Devils to their first Pac-12 road win of the season.
“Knowing that we can still play our game even under the circumstances of being cold or just being away from home, away from our comfort zone, knowing that we can fight like we did today actually brings a lot of confidence for us,” said Juarez.
This isn’t the end of Arizona State in Berkeley as they play again on Saturday, March 24 at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 25 at 3:00 p.m.
