(Photo via Nicole Mullen/WCSN)
Following ASU Softball’s fiery 15-3 start to the season, few could have imagined that come late April the Sun Devils would be fighting to stay above .500. But yet, that’s exactly the situation ASU found itself in after dropping Friday’s series opener to No. 10 Stanford.
Despite needing a crucial win in Saturday’s matchup, ASU (21-22, 5-15) got buried quickly by home runs in the first two innings. Stanford (37-10, 12-8) took control and refused to relinquish the lead, and the Sun Devils barely avoided being run-ruled before losing their 10th-straight game by a final score of 8-1.
“The mentality hasn’t changed,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “We’ve been saying it over and over, ‘You have to scrap. You have to fight. You have to earn every single thing to this point.’ And honestly, nobody feels sorry for us. The program’s in a tough spot. … Whatever it is, we’ve got to find a way to come up with runners in scoring position. Pitchers have to spin the ball.”
Despite their team having unleashed just 16 home runs on the season coming into Tempe, junior catcher Aly Kaneshiro and sophomore utility player Kylie Chung were able to muster up the power to send two balls over the wall in the first and second innings, respectively. This gave the Cardinal a 3-0 lead to work with to start the night.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, freshman right-hander NiJaree Canady picked up right where she left off against ASU on Friday night. After striking out nine of the 11 batters she faced in Friday’s relief appearance, Canady picked up nine punchouts through the first four innings of her Saturday start.
“Canady’s a great pitcher,” Bartlett said. “She has an ERA of 0.29. … 72, 73 (miles per hour) with up-spin, great curve, great rise, and honestly, when she wanted to go to it, she mixed in a little bit of a change-up. She got a couple of (batters) on change-ups late in counts tonight. The reality is, it takes a really, really elite hitter with really clean patterning to be able to consistently hit 72, 73, so we’ve just to keep grinding through it.”
It was in the fourth inning that things really got out of control for ASU. Sophomore righty Kenzie Brown, in her second inning of relief, struggled to find the strike zone. First, she walked a batter in five pitches to lead off the inning. Then, two plays later, a wild pitch from Brown allowed that runner to score. Brown walked the next two batters after the score, and in a messy display of miscommunication between Brown and graduate catcher Gianna Boccagno, another run scored on a wild pitch and a poor attempt at a throw to force a play at the plate.
Stanford wouldn’t stop there, tacking on its third and fourth runs of the inning via a Kaneshiro two-RBI single. Another RBI single hit by freshman infielder River Mahler in the fifth plated another run and allowed the Cardinal to carry an 8-0 lead heading into the bottom half of the inning.
But unlike Friday night, the Sun Devils had slowly been able to chip away at Canady through the first four innings. With the game on the line, two outs and a runner on base, senior infielder Jazmyn Rollin hit a ball into deep left field. Freshman outfielder Kyra Chan, attempted to make a play on the ball, but it bounced in and out of her glove, giving Rollin time to make it to second and, most importantly, giving the runner on first enough time to make it home. It was just the fourth run, earned or otherwise, that Canady had given up all season.
“I actually thought we had some nice at-bats there and put a ton of pressure on them late,” Bartlett said. “I think it must have been the bottom of (the fifth inning), and I was like, ‘Guys, we have to score here. … We can’t get run-ruled in five. Unless you’d like to see 72, 73 all day tomorrow, this kid’s got to throw a few more innings. We’ve got to wear her out.’ And the kids were like, ‘Ok. We got it.’ And then, (Rollin) hit a great ball, and we finally scored and kind of spoiled and made them play (two) more innings of softball.”
However, even despite the jolt of momentum followed by two solid back-to-back innings from junior right-hander Deborah Jones in which Stanford only saw three players step up to the plate, the Sun Devils couldn’t do what they needed to fight back and overcome the deficit.
“Super proud of (Jones),” Bartlett said. “It was a big jump coming from a mid-major to a really big stage, and she couldn’t make the same mistakes to hitters, and I think she was really self-reflective, and she kept working. … She just carries herself with some nice composure and some confidence, so it’s great. I would expect to see more and more (Jones if) she keeps throwing like that. Pounding the zone, keeping people mistimed, it was great.”
This marks the Sun Devils fourth-straight Pac-12 Conference series loss this season. Now sitting below .500, ASU will have a chance to remedy their record in Sunday’s series finale. Although the series has been decided, there’s more at stake for ASU Softball come Sunday. With it being Senior Weekend, Bartlett and her crew will be looking to give this year’s senior class a positive send-off in its final battle at Club Farrington.
“They need to channel it,” Bartlett said. “Every athlete’s going to have nerves heading into a big game. The really great ones can learn how to use it, and that’s what they’re going to have to do tomorrow. This is their day, and it’s about them. This whole rest of their experience is going to be what they make it. It’s very solidly in their control. … I’m excited for them. We’ve got senior magic on our side tomorrow.”
