ASU Softball: No. 21 Sun Devils knock off No. 13 Blue Devils in walk-off fashion

(Photo: Reece Andrews/WCSN)

No. 21 Arizona State would face its second-ranked opponent in the Kajikawa Classic in the form of the No.13 Duke Blue Devils on Saturday night. Sitting at 2-1 on the season, Arizona State would look to dampen the winning 4-0 parade of the Blue Devils at Farrington.

The Sun Devils would do just that as they played spoiler and upset the Blue Devils 8-7, off a game-winning two-run home run by freshman Kristiana Watson.

The first three innings of the game would be the first time all year that Duke was held scoreless through that period. Sophomore Allison Royalty would toe the rubber to start the game against Duke’s ace, senior Peyton St. George. Both pitchers would hold each other’s offense to no runs through three. While Royalty would walk the first two batters that she saw, freshman Ana Gold and junior Gisele Tapia, Royalty would be bailed out after catcher, and graduate student transfer Jessica Puk threw Gold out after she was caught trying to steal second base. Royalty would settle in, strikeout senior Rachel Crabtree, and force senior Jameson Kavel to send a foul ball down the right-field line into the glove of freshmen star Cydney Sanders. The bottom half of the inning would see junior Jazmine Hill fly out to the left-field, a single to right field off the bat of senior Yannira Acuña, a pop-up to first basemen Crabtree by junior Alynah Torres and Acuña leaving the base too early would be outs two and three.

The Blue Devils would go three up, and three down — pop fly foul by sophomore Kelly Torres, a ground out from senior Kristina Forman, and a strikeout looking from senior Caroline Jacobsen would send the Blue Devils packing in the top of two. Sanders would single but be left stranded on base after a freshman Kristiana Watson laid down a sacrifice bunt, which would lead to the first out, then two strikeouts by senior Jazmyn Rollin and senior Makenna Harper.

The third inning would see Gold be the sole Blue Devil to put the ball into play for her teammates as she singled. ASU would go three up and three down with Puk, senior Bella Loomis, and Hill.

The fourth inning would be where things started to get interesting for both teams. Crabtree would lead off the fourth inning for the Blue Devils with a ground out to second base, Kavel would single, advance to second, then third off two wild pitches. Torres would draw a walk, and Kavel wouldn’t be able to score until the six-hitter Foreman singled driving in Kavel, giving Duke the first lead of the game. Duke would strand Kelsey Zampa (pinch-runner for Torres) and Foremen on the base paths.

The bats of the Sun Devils would come to life in the home haft of the fourth inning as Acuña would get the hit parade started with a double to center field, right behind her Torres would single driving in Acuña in the process, sophomore Savannah Price would be called upon to pinch run for Torres. Sanders would double to left-center scoring Price, giving ASU their first lead of the ball game. Watson singled to the shortstop Kavel and advanced to second on the throw, allowing Sanders to score, giving ASU a two-run lead in the ball game. Rollin recorded a hit-by-pitch, putting runners on first and second without any outs. Harper would keep the double train rolling along as she doubled herself, scoring Rollin and pinch-runner for Watson, sophomore Emily Cazarse extending the Sun Devils lead to four. That would end St. George’s night on the mound as she would go three innings giving up five runs on seven hits. Freshmen Shelby Walters would be called upon to face pinch hitter Jordyn VanHook in place of Puk, VanHook would single advancing Harper to third. That would be that was written as Loomis would strike out looking, Hill fouled out, and Acuña ground out to the third base.

The top of five would find Duke down by four for the second time this season – the only other time coming in the first inning of their first game against Cal Baptist, where Duke gave up four runs. The Blue Devils would still win that game 15-4. Gold would hit a solo home run with one out after sophomore Jessica Frelick struck out. Gold’s solo shot would be the lone bright spot of the fifth inning and be the straw that took Royalty out of the game for now. With Royalty out, junior Lindsay Lopez would step in to close out the frame. Lopez would strikeout and ground out the first two Duke that she saw. ASU would strike out looking, foul out to the first base, and strike out swinging in a short bottom of five.

Duke would mount their own comeback in the top half of the sixth inning, Kavle would strikeout swinging, Torres would reach on an error, Foreman would fly out, putting the second out on the board, but Duke’s two-out rally was just getting started as Jacobsen would go yard to right field for a two-run home run. Jackson would single to right field, Morris wore a pitch, putting runners on first and second, two outs, and ending the nigh pitching for Lopez. Mac Morgan would be called upon from the Sun Devil bullpen to finish the inning. She would allow the first batter she saw Gold to get on base, which scored Jackson. Taylor Kraft would step up to the plate to pinch-hit for Tapia; Kraft would reach on an error advancing Morris to third. Crabtree would also reach on another costly error by the Sun Devils this time scoring Morris, a four-run inning that gave the Blue Devils the lead once again, six to five.

Down by one run coming into the bottom of the sixth, sophomore Marissa Schuld would single to center field while pinch-hitting for Rollin; Rollin would come back in as soon as Schuld reached base the next two Sun Devils would strike swinging and grounding out. Senior Mailey McLemore would come into the game to pinch-hit for nine hitters Loomis. McLemore would single advance Rollin to third. The lineup card would flip back to the top for the Sun Devils and Hill. Hill would have an RBI single to left field driving in Rollin, tying the game back up at six aside. That would be all the only run the Sun Devils would get; they end up stringing three on base to head into the top of the seventh inning.

Duke would retake the lead in the top half of the seventh inning off a single by Torres, a walk to Jacobsen, that would end the night for Morgan and bring Royalty back to the circle. Royalty would walk the bases full, then walk in the go-ahead run for the Blue devils before striking out Gold and forcing Tapia into a ground out to first basemen Sanders.

With their backs against the wall in the bottom of the seventh, Sanders would hit the second pitch she saw right back to the pitcher Walters who took it off the leg allowing Sanders to reach first base safely. With one runner on and no outs, Watson stepped into the box and drove that first pitch she saw into center field and a walk-off two-run home run to give the Devils an eight to seven victory over No. 13 Duke.

ASU head coach Trisha Ford was delighted with how the game ended for the Sun Devils and freshmen Kristiana Watson.

“Wats [Watson] is somebody that puts in the work, she’s going to be something special, and so it’s great to see all of her work come to fortition that at-bat, we had a gut feeling with her tonight.”

Ford was also very pleased with how her team hit the ball and feels like they are getting back to the basics and playing softball.

“I felt like we finally had our energy, our game. We still [have] some things that we need to clean up, but it was just refreshing. I felt like we have been tight like the first couple of days and just not us…and that’s what we walked about yesterday after our game, is just go play softball, you guys do this every single day, whatever happens, but you gotta go out and play softball, and I thought tonight they did that.” she said. “We’re a really good hitting team and you know we finally came out and executed that game plan.”

Talking to the walk-off star Watson after the game, she commented on how fun it was to run the bases and her mindset coming into the scene in the bottom of the seventh inning.

“I was trying to keep it as simple as possible. See a good pitch that I can do some damage with and hopefully help my team get the win.”

The Sun Devils will be back in action tomorrow afternoon to close out the Kajikawa Classic against Missouri State, that game slated for a 1:00 P.M MST first pitch.