(Photo: Gabrielle Mercer/WCSN)
The No. 17 Arizona State Sun Devils wrapped up the Littlewood Classic against the Montana Grizzles, and capped off a perfect weekend.
The game faced a drop dead time of 4 p.m., which it made it an official game.
The Sun Devils struck in the first inning of the game when senior centerfielder Jennifer Soria scored the first run coming home on a walk. One more run was added on a sacrifice fly.
“That’s always the goal is to score first,” junior catcher Sashel Palacios said. “Just come out attack and just shut down the other team, but sometimes it is not always going to be that easy.”
Sophomore right handed pitcher Dale Ryndak got the start against the Grizzlies. Ryndak came into the game with a 0.44 ERA and a 3-0 record.
Ryndak had a solid start as she held the Grizzlies to one run on six hits through five innings.
ASU threatened to score in the bottom of the third, but was unable to capitalize on the bases loaded one out jam.
In the bottom of the fourth the Sun Devils were able to score on a nicely placed suicide squeeze from Soria. That RBI was Soria’s 11th on the season and it pushed ASU’s lead to 3-0.
The Grizzlies struck right back in the top of the fifth with a moonshot homerun courtesy of freshman first baseman Sydney Stites. Ryndak was pulled from the game after the Grizzlies followed the homerun up with a single.
“She (Ryndak) definitely started to feel tired a little bit,” co-interim head coach Letty Olivarez said. “Her ball started to flatten out so we wanted to make that change.”
Redshirt junior right handed pitcher Kelsey Kessler came in and was able to get out of the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth the Sun Devils were able to capitalize on an error by the Grizzlies as freshman infielder Taylor Becerra chopped a groundball up the middle, but the throw over to first was errant allowing two Sun Devils to score.
Montana would not go away though, as the Grizzlies mounted pressure and scored a run in the top of the sixth on an RBI single from sophomore infielder Gabby Martinez. That closed ASU’s lead back to three at 5-2.
There was a quick answer in the bottom of the sixth as Palacios singled into left field for her second RBI of the game.
Following the first out of that inning, sophomore third baseman Brynley Steele launched her first career home run into right-center field grabbing three RBI. She had four RBI on the day.
“My approach was to look for an outside pitch and drive the ball out to right field,” Steele said.
Those would be the final runs scored in the game as the Sun Devils took the game by a score of 9-2. The Sun Devils went 5-0 in the Littlewood Classic.
Next weekend the Sun Devils will host the Diamond Devil Invitational in Tempe.
If you have any questions or comments, you can contact Jacob Franklin via twitter @JFrankSports or via email at jacobfranklin093@gmail.com.
