(Photo via Nicole Mullen/WCSN)
Heading into Saturday night’s game, ASU Softball hoped to avenge its 5-2 loss against No. 17 Oregon from the night before.
Instead, the Sun Devils (21-15, 5-9) dropped the game and their fourth conference series of the season while suffering back-to-back losses to the Ducks (26-11, 6-7).
With a consistently quiet offense and a pitching staff that was unable to match the Ducks’ firepower, the Sun Devils failed to pull off the upset in game two.
The Sun Devils started and stayed with graduate right-handed pitcher Marissa Schuld in the pitching circle for the full seven innings. After the Ducks were able to blast four home runs against the Sun Devils’ two most prolific pitchers Friday night, Schuld knew there would be a good chance she would have to throw for the whole game.
“I had the same approach going into today’s game as I do every other game,” Schuld said. “I just go out there, stay loose and compete.”
After the Ducks started off with a quiet first inning, the Sun Devils took no time to score their first run of the game. Graduate outfielder Yannira Acuña scored off senior infielder Jordyn Vanhook’s RBI groundout to make it 1-0 Sun Devils.
However, in the second inning, the Ducks quickly took the lead, as an RBI double from junior infielder Alyssa Daniell plated redshirt senior catcher Terra McGowan. The Ducks then jumped in front when Daniell managed to steal home three plays later.
From then, both teams failed to score until the 5th inning when both teams were able to put runs up. For the Ducks, two runs were when senior outfielder Ariel Carlson entered the game as a pinch hitter and hit a two-RBI double to increase Oregon’s lead to 4-1.
For the Sun Devils, their last run of the game was scored by Schuld, who came around thanks to senior outfielder Jazmine Hill, who pinch hit an RBI triple.
“I am extremely proud of Hill’s sequence,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “That’s what we have been working on in practice. She swung at a pitch she knew she shouldn’t have, and she tested another pitch, and then, she had the pitcher figured out and hit that triple down the line.”
The Ducks scored one more run in the sixth inning when sophomore outfielder Kedre Luschar scored off another RBI double, this time hit by junior infielder KK Humphreys.
With the loss on Saturday, ASU will now fight to avoid getting swept at home on Sunday. Despite only having one Pac-12 Conference series win, the Sun Devils have yet to be swept by an opponent.
“I feel like I’ve said this a lot, but this loss was a heartbreaker,” Bartlett said. “Schuld did a fantastic job. It’s just that Oregon is a great team. Tomorrow will be rough, but our goal as a team remains the same, we try our best to avoid the sweep and steal a game. We want to get to a .500 conference record, and in order to do that, we just have to win and surprise people in the tournament.”
