(Photo via Janaé Bradford/WCSN)
To begin the final series of a 16-game homestand, ASU Softball welcomed No. 19 Arizona to Tempe for game one of the latest rendition of the Territorial Cup series.
As Friday night’s Pac-12 Conference opener for ASU (15-4, 0-1) slowly crept by, the opposing Wildcats (16-6, 1-0) watched and waited patiently as the Sun Devils’ errors slowly killed ASU’s chances of victory run by run. Arizona put up a run in all but one inning against the Sun Devils, who failed to put up a single run in the 9-0 shutout loss.
“Arizona is a very good ball club,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “That is a world series team from last year, and they can swing it, and they did.”
Bartlett went with junior right-handed pitcher Mac Osborne to start in the circle on Friday night. Osborne allowed four hits and four runs through 3.2 innings, while striking out five batters. Osborne’s pitching, however, was overshadowed by that of Arizona junior right-handed ace Devyn Netz. Netz pitched a complete-game shutout, holding ASU to just four hits, while allowing one walk and punching out six batters.
“Devyn Netz is honestly, I think, one of the top five pitchers in the country,” Bartlett said. “She had us guessing, and she kept us off balance. I thought that, really, as much as I tried to calm the nerves in the last couple of days, it’s a rivalry game, and we have a lot of inexperience on the field.”
The Sun Devils dug themselves into a hole early in the game. Osborne hit the second batter and walked the next on four straight balls. Followed by a single from freshman designated player Olivia DiNardo, the Sun Devils found themselves with one out and the bases loaded in the first inning.
Osborne proceeded to walk in Arizona’s first run. After a meeting on the mound with Osborne and her defense, the Sun Devils turned the corner temporarily to get themselves out of the jam. They did so with a pivotal strikeout against Netz and and a groundball hit to junior infielder Kayla Lissy, who flipped the ball straight from her glove to get the force out at second base to end the inning.
On the other side, Netz was lights out against ASU. She challenged the lineup with a nasty combination of changeup and rise ball pitches, freezing the Sun Devils’ bats. She escaped the first inning using only six pitches.
Netz threw a total of 93 pitches, which was significantly less than the combined total of 149 pitches for ASU’s three pitchers. Netz held the Devils to relatively short innings throughout the game, facing no more than five batters in an inning. With her performance, she prohibited ASU’s offense from ever gaining momentum.
Alternatively, Arizona’s offensive momentum was fueled by ASU’s four errors that led to four unearned runs. The Wildcats steadily tallied six runs through six innings and then exploded offensively in the seventh, courtesy of sophomore outfielder Paige Dimler. Dimler hit a two-RBI double and was able to make it to third and bring in another run thanks to a fielding error by graduate outfielder Yannira Acuña.
“You know, if we just picked up the ball behind (Osborne) early on, it probably would have been a little bit of a different ballgame,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett and her crew will look to sleep on their errors and bounce back Saturday for the second game of the series against Arizona at 5 p.m.
“Hopefully, they come out with a little bit better sense of calm and focus, and they just get out of their own way and allow themselves to compete a little better,” Bartlett said. “I think the game plan was pretty good, we just have to execute it. They need to have a short memory and clear it for the next game. The most important game in any series is game two. Once you get the momentum, you’re dangerous.”
