(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)
Arizona State’s Breanna Macha and Coastal Carolina’s Kaitlin Beasley-Polko went at it on Friday night in a pitcher’s duel for the first game of the Devil Classic for Arizona State. Macha came out on top with a season-high ten strikeouts on the night and a 4-2 win over Coastal Carolina.
Normally a groundball pitcher, Macha pitched a game that she isn’t usually used to.
“Just confidence,” Macha said. “I’m used to being that groundball pitcher, so being a strikeout pitcher tonight, it’s rewarding, just knowing that if I do my job then that can happen.”
“I think Bre did a good job of finding that zone, I think it was tough tonight and I thought she did a really good job of figuring out what it was and working within it,” said head coach Trisha Ford.
Behind Macha was a solid defense that kept the Chanticleers at two runs on the night.
“We worked really hard at practice the past couple days just on defense itself,” said Macha. “We took a lot of team defense and little stuff like that.”
Right fielder Kindra Hackbarth had a “SportsCenter Top 10 Play” on the night with her diving catch in the third inning.
“I think defensively everybody pretty much had great games, Kindra, that play in right field, I literally got the chills,” said Jade Gortarez. “I think defensively we just need to keep doing what we are doing.”
Offensively, freshman Bella Loomis, who has found herself playing more and more at third base, had a successful night at the plate as she got two of the four runs on the night for the Sun Devils.
Along with Loomis’, the rest of the team found success on the base path, earning four combined stolen bases.
Even though both teams had six hits apiece and got the experience of a close game, the Sun Devils need to err on the side of caution and use this game as a valuable tool going into conference play in upcoming weeks.
“We’ve got to come out and play our game, and I think we took things for granted tonight,” said Ford. “That’s a good team over there, they’re scrappy, that pitcher has good up-spin and we had a plan and we didn’t stick to it so that’s what it (the game) looks like.”
Notably, Beasley-Polko had a decent game herself, striking out nine on 151 pitches in the game. However, the Chanticleers did not help Beasley-Polk defensively. Coastal Carolina put up three errors that led to three unearned runs to score for the Sun Devils. Without those errors, the game could have easily made its way into extra innings.
The Sun Devils and the Chanticleers find themselves back at Farrington Stadium for a rematch, Saturday, March 3, that starts at 4:30 p.m. After that game, ASU will take on New Mexico State at 7 p.m.
