Changes to infield alignment power Sun Devils to late afternoon win

(Photo credit: Madison Sorenson/WCSN)

TEMPE — As graduate utility player AJ Murphy made yet another play to retire the side in the sixth inning of Arizona State’s second game on Friday, it was clear to see that the two games ASU played were heavily influenced by the team’s defense.

In the first game of the doubleheader against No. 3 Florida, the Sun Devils had some egregious errors on the field, a massive reason why ASU fell to the Gators 9-1.

On paper, the Sun Devils only had one error. However, many would claim that ASU had three errors. In the first inning, a collision in shallow right field between freshman infielder Tiare Ho-Ching and freshman outfielder Ashleigh Mejia caused a fly ball to fall out of Mejia’s glove. Mejia was able to recover and throw out the runner going to second base.

“Those freshmen are going to learn their lessons the hard way,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “They are going to have to figure it out because they are going to be next to each other for the next four years.”

An almost identical play happened last week when Ho-Ching and Mejia collided, causing Ho-Ching to leave the contest early.

The struggles at shortstop have also been well-documented. Freshman infielder Grace Molitor has been subpar defensively with just a .762 fielding percentage after the Florida game in which her struggles were on full display.

Molitor was only credited with one error after a somewhat routine infield pop-up was dropped, allowing all runners to reach base safely. A couple of innings later, an almost identical play occurred when Molitor dropped another infield pop fly.

“(Molitor) is very good at what she does,” Bartlett said. “She is also very young, she just graduated high school in December.”

Curiously, Molitor was not credited with an error the second time around. Still, those defensive mishaps helped Florida to consistently put runs on the board throughout the game. That combined with a sluggish offensive performance from ASU, prevented the Sun Devils from mounting a comeback.

The second game of the doubleheader was a different story. Bartlett moved Murphy from third base, where she was playing in the first game, over to shortstop for the second game where she was lights out in game two.

“It was really awesome to see AJ step up,” graduate outfielder Kelsey Hall said. “She has a senior presence, I think with her out there again it’s going to be a good step for the Sun Devil defense.”

In game two Murphy recorded six putouts and was perfect in the field, making a couple of fantastic plays to help ASU pitching.

Additionally, freshman infielder Takyla Davis, who filled Murphy’s spot at third, made what might have been the best play of the day with one out in the top of the seventh. Davis made an impressive running play to retire junior catcher Valerie Alvarez and put the Sun Devils one out away from their eventual 8-1 win.

Davis was on the bench for game one, but she showed up in game two coming through with three putouts of her own. The left side of the infield that struggled so much in game one was shuffled for game two, and it showed significant improvement.

“They were incredible,” sophomore pitcher Meika Lauppe said. “They knew exactly where the ball was going to be, and they were there for it.”

Lauppe, with the help of better defensive play, went 4.0 innings and only allowed two hits before handing the ball to senior pitcher Kenzie Brown.

Brown ran into some trouble in the fifth, but with a couple of nice plays made behind her, she was able to limit the damage to one run. Brown was able to close things out and with an offensive explosion of six runs the Sun Devils had in the sixth, Brown’s job was a lot easier in the seventh.

The defense has been an issue in the early going for the Sun Devils, but Bartlett and company may have found a solution on the left side of the infield with Murphy at shortstop and Davis at third.