(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
No. 17 Arizona State (25-11, 5-4 Pac-12) stormed into Hillenbrand Stadium for its final series of March in a rivalry matchup against No. 11 Arizona (27-7, 9-0 Pac-12) but what had been the country’s best offense quickly fell silent. The Sun Devils were held to six hits and no runs over three games in their first weekend sweep of the year.
Friday and Saturday were 8-0, five-inning losses, with Sunday being a much closer 2-0.
This was not just Arizona’s first time holding ASU scoreless over three games, but the first time the program has done it since the conference began playing three-game series in 2010.
No ASU hitter recorded more than one hit, with a Bella Loomis double Sunday afternoon being the only extra-base hit of the series. For head coach Trisha Ford, the struggles in the box can be pinpointed to a lack of adjustment.
“I told them that if we don’t make adjustments against a good team, that’s what’s going to happen,” Ford said after Sunday’s loss. “We didn’t do a good job of honing in on our pitches so I think we’ve got to go back to that and play our game. That’s the biggest thing, we didn’t play our game.”
The Devils looked like anything but the ASU team that has put on impressive offensive displays all season long, with hitters striking out in one-third of their at bats (19 of 56).
Arizona’s All-American pitcher Taylor McQuillin was in the circle Friday and Sunday and her ability, combined with the heavy left-handed presence in ASU’s lineup against her left arm were a combination that simply could not work out in the Sun Devils’ favor, especially with the lack of ASU’s adjustments.
“It’s on us, we didn’t get the job done so I think it’s more about what we didn’t do than what [McQuillin] did,” Ford said.” “She went out and threw her game. She didn’t let anything faze her but we didn’t make any adjustments in the box.”
Alyssa Denham pitched Saturday’s game, holding ASU to two hits and three walks, with four strikeouts.
Samantha Mejia started Friday and Sunday, with Abby Andersen starting Saturday’s game with the two combining for 6.1 innings over the three games, all of which saw Cielo Meza enter in relief.
“I was really happy with Sam and Cielo did great all weekend long,” Ford said. “[Cielo] threw quite a few innings today and there are somethings we are working on that I am seeing some progress.”
After three weeks out of game action, Meza returned to the circle, striking out five over six innings with just two earned runs allowed.
“She’s been working really hard, she’s gotten into a good rhythm,” Ford said. “She says she feels good, so we’re going to keep using her more and more as she continues to feel better and better.”
The series with the Wildcats was ASU’s first conference weekend on the road in 2019, but also the first of three straight against top-10 teams. The Devils host No. 1 UCLA ranked next weekend before heading to Seattle to face No. 7 Washington.
“We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves,” Ford said. I”t’s a good learning experience, our first [Pac-12 series] on the road, so you’ve got UCLA coming into town this week, there’s not time for sulking about this. You’ve got to go to work and you’ve got to grind.”
