(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Following a demoralizing 5-1 loss to open up Pac-12 play, No. 17 Arizona State responded with a dramatic offensive showing against Oregon State, scoring 13 runs in the third inning to give ASU the 18-2 victory.
After going hitless in three at-bats in the first game against the Beavers, junior right fielder Kindra Hackbarth set the tone for the Sun Devils at the plate, leading off with a solo shot to deep center field. Oregon State fired back at the Sun Devils with a run of their own in the top of the second following a sac-bunt and an RBI single up the middle to equalize the game at one run apiece.
However, just as they had done many times before, the ASU bats lit up in the top of the third and it was all Sun Devils from there on out.
Sophomore second baseman Bella Loomis began the inning with a fly out to left field and Hackbarth followed up with a double to right-center. After stealing third base, Hackbarth beat the throw home on a fielder’s choice from senior left fielder Skylar McCarty. Senior center fielder Morgan Howe went to the plate next and blasted a two-run bomb to left-center field.
Two batters later, sophomore first baseman Denae Chatman went yard herself with another two-run shot to center field. Following Chatman’s homer, four more Sun Devils would provide hits, while six hitters accounted for RBIs throughout the frame.
“I think we were a completely different team today,” Howe said about ASU’s performance at the plate compared to Friday night. “We definitely bounced back, forgot about yesterday and came out with a different mindset.”
ASU’s offensive prowess continued in the fourth with a solo homer to center from McCarty and a stand-up double from Howe. Junior catcher Maddi Hackbarth reached base on a walk and then junior Alli Tatnall stepped up the plate to pinch hit for Chatman.
Tatnall, who dutifully performs many tasks for the Sun Devils throughout practice, pre-game warmup and in the dugout during games when she isn’t on the field herself, blasted a three-run shot off the scoreboard to give ASU an 18-1 lead.
“My favorite (hit) from tonight was (Tatnall’s) home run, it gave me goosebumps,” head coach Trisha Ford said. “She does everything to help us win…I was just so happy for her.”
Hackbarth and Howe were the standouts of the game in the batter’s box, each going three-for-three at the plate with a home run and three RBIs apiece.
“If (Hackbarth and Howe) go, (the rest of the team) goes,” Ford said. “They set our offense – that’s going to be important for us (going forward).”
With the great success of Abby Andersen in the circle, it had been a full week since junior right-hander Samantha Mejia toed the rubber. In her first Pac-12 appearance, Mejia went right back to the dominance she showed throughout non-conference play, allowing only five OSU hits with her only real blunder being a home run to OSU’s senior center fielder Shelby Weeks to lead off the fifth.
“I thought it was so exciting and it feels amazing (to play in a Pac-12 game),” Mejia said. “After the loss yesterday to come back and do what we did…. We really gave it to them, and it felt amazing.”
The emphatic win also marked Ford’s 100th win as Sun Devil head coach since coming to Tempe for the 2017 season.
“I wanted to play for Coach Ford since I was being recruited, to be able to be a part of (her 300th career win) last year and (her 100th ASU win) this year is just an honor,” Howe said. Howe played her freshman year at Fresno State under Ford before following her former coach to ASU for her junior year in 2018. “There are no words. I am so incredibly thankful and it’s nice to be a part of it, she deserves it.”
ASU wraps up their first set of conference games against Oregon State on Sunday at noon in Tempe. They will stay at home next weekend to face the Utah Utes.
