(Photo: Liesl Babicka/WCSN)
The No. 6 Arizona State (43-11, 16-8 Pac-12) softball team falls 2-1 to No. 1 UCLA (50-4, 20-4 Pac-12) in nine innings after senior Madeline Jelenicki hit a walk-off home run to left field. With Jelenicki’s home run the Bruins took the series from ASU.
Southpaw G Juarez took her second start of the weekend while UCLA decided to put Holly Azevedo in the circle to face the Sun Devil offense.
In a matter of two innings the pitchers threw a combined total of eight strikeouts defining how the rest of the game would be played.
Both teams also played stellar defense including ASU shortstop Jade Gortarez.
“That kid is out of her mind, some of those plays nobody even gets to them,” said ASU head coach Trisha Ford. “Some of her errors are balls nobody has any business getting to, that kid, you enjoy watching her play because she plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”
Gortarez didn’t have the offensive game she wanted, but she is only inches away from making something magical happen for the Sun Devils.
The Bruins would strike first in the fourth inning when Briana Perez was walked by Juarez. Perez made her way around the bases until she ended up at third.
Jelenicki hit a single to left centerfield which allowed to Perez to touch home, taking a 1-0 lead on ASU.
The lead wouldn’t last long. DeNae Chatman came to the plate in the fifth inning to hit a solo home run and her second of the weekend to right centerfield to tie the game 1-1. Chatman’s seventh home run of the year was the first hit of the game for Sun Devils.
In the following inning ASU made an effort to try and steal the lead. Kindra Hackbarth hit a double into the gap between right and centerfield. After Danielle Gibson’s first appearance of the game that ended in an out, UCLA made a pitching change.
Rachel Garcia moved from playing first base to take over the role in the circle. She finished out the rest of the inning with no more threats from the Sun Devils.
Kylee Perez almost led the bottom of the sixth with a double but ended up falling on her way to second base allowing the throw from centerfield to reach Marisa Stankiewicz, who had enough time to throw to Gibson at first to get Perez out.
After the fall by Perez, the Bruins made contact with Juarez’s pitches, but were unable to get anything going.
Seven innings wouldn’t be enough to decide who would take the series in Westwood. UCLA would play its first game in extra innings of this season while ASU is familiar with the territory.
It wasn’t until the ninth inning of the game when Jelenicki would hit her two-out walk-off home run to win the game 2-1 for the Bruins.
“I think they left it on the field today, things didn’t go our way and someone has to win and someone has to lose and I think they played hard,” said Ford. “I am very happy with their effort.”
Even though ASU finished the Pac-12 with a loss, their conference play is nothing to be disappointed in especially in a conference with consistent top programs in the country such as Washington, Oregon, UCLA, Cal and Arizona.
“We’ve played everyone to prepare us for postseason so I’m proud I think we handled ourselves very well in conference play I think we had some ups and downs,” said Ford. “Overall I am very happy how we finished in the Pac.”
With this final loss wrapping up the regular season and Pac-12 conference play the Sun Devils will head into the postseason this upcoming weekend.
The latter half of Sunday, May 13, will determine the outcome of the postseason for Ford and her team. The NCAA will decide who ASU will take on as well as if the Sun Devils will host a super-regional in Tempe.
“I never count my chickens before they hatch and tomorrow I am anticipating it to be something our players deserve, and this program deserves, but no matter what we still have to go out and play the game,” said Ford.
