ASU Softball: Sun Devils falter in home opener against BYU

(Photo via Danielle Trujillo/WCSN)

On Thursday night, Arizona State Softball looked to open up the Littlewood Classic with the first home win of the Megan Bartlett coaching era against BYU.

However, the night ended in disappointment as ASU made too many mistakes to open and close the game. The Sun Devils (4-2) may have outplayed the Cougars (3-2) for a long stretch of the game, but the Cougars took advantage of opportunities in big moments. Despite not scoring for four straight innings, the Cougars still doubled the Sun Devils’ score, winning 10-5.

BYU came out of the gates with fervor, giving ASU a gut punch that would have them reeling until late in the game. Thanks to junior right-handed pitcher Mac Osborne hitting a batter and giving up two singles, BYU quickly loaded the bases with only one out. Osborne then threw a pitch too low for graduate catcher Gianna Boccagno, allowing the first run to be scored. Another error came when graduate infielder Alexa Milius bobbled a catch at third base, allowing another run. The next run was scored on a fielder’s choice, and then a fourth resulted from another wild pitch from Osborne. Before the Sun Devils knew it, they were down 4-0 in the first inning, mostly because of their errors.

ASU went scoreless in the bottom of the inning and allowed BYU to pile on two more runs in the second, where another pitch by Osborne hit a batter. Head coach Megan Bartlett knew that the offense had to step up if they wanted to get out of this early hole.

“If we’re not going to defend so well, we better hit so well. … They came out. We didn’t play some balls so well. They jumped ahead,” Bartlett said. “At that point, it’s just time to be gritty, have quality at-bats, have good pitch selection, (and) not try and make any one at-bat too big. We just needed base runners at that point.”

The offense did step up in the following innings, but what kept ASU afloat was the pitching of sophomore right-handed pitcher Kenzie Brown. She took over in the circle in the third and held down the fort for the next four innings. In her three innings of work, she tallied four strikeouts while giving up no hits to the Cougars. Bartlett was impressed by Brown’s performance, but not surprised by her skill.

“That kid has special stuff in her,” Bartlett said. “She is incredibly talented. You know she can spin it up. She can spin it down. She can move it off speed. She just plays the game with this incredible passion and joy. You can see it. It comes off of her at the mound. As she gets more innings under her belt (and) time goes on, we expect really big things from Kenzie and she’s going to be a big part of the program moving forward.”

As Brown was dominating the mound, the Sun Devils got back into the game on the offensive end. In the third, they scored two runs thanks to an RBI single from senior infielder Jordyn VanHook and a throwing error by BYU junior outfielder Maddie Bejarano. Milius followed that up with an RBI double to right center field, allowing Vanhook to score ASU’s third run.

In the fifth, Hill and VanHook found their groove again, each hitting a homerun to close the deficit and make it a 6-5 ballgame. After falling behind 6-0 early, the Sun Devils had found a way to claw back into the game. However, things would quickly deteriorate once again.

In the seventh, with graduate righty Marissa Schuld in the circle, BYU found the same magic they had at the start of the game. The Cougars had four singles, one walk, one stolen base, and one batter hit by a pitch. These events amounted to another four-run inning for BYU, crushing ASU’s chances at a comeback.

Though the Sun Devils were able to hit two home runs, they could not find a way to stop the Cougars when they were on a roll. The Sun Devils ended up batting .250 on the night, compared to BYU’s .290. It didn’t help that graduate outfielder Yannira Acuña went hitless in a game for the first time this season. Bartlett knows that this was a tough loss, but she also knows the team has to have a short memory and move on quickly.

“We can’t get that game back, so you have to stay present, get ready for the opponent tomorrow, and go,” Bartlett said. “That’s a group of kids who have worked so hard since coming here in August. They’re settling through nerves, and they’re trying to find their roles, and I just think they just have to calm down and play.”