(Photo credit: Madison Sorenson/WCSN)
TEMPE — As junior outfielder Tanya Windle singled into right field to bring home the tying run in the bottom of the seventh inning, the script from the six that led up to it flipped.
With the tying run coming to the plate off the bat of Windle, she finally recorded the Sun Devils first hit with runners in scoring position all the way in the seventh. Up to that at-bat, ASU was skunked in the category with no hits on six trips to the plate.
“I knew what I was capable of doing,” Windle said. “I was excited in that moment.”
However, the satisfaction of pulling through with RISP didn’t last long. Going into extras tied at three, Oregon State exploded in the eighth.
The Beavers brought home the ghost runner on second before sophomore outfielder Jaeya Butler crushed a two-run home run, making the score 6-3, which held to the end of the game.
The fact the Sun Devils were able to extend the game to extras was a testament to everything else they did well throughout the day. The pair of freshman right-handed pitchers Julianne Tipton and Cambree Creager pitched well, only allowing three runs through seven innings.
“The freshmen, I thought, came along really nicely on the mound this weekend,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “[Tipton] had a couple of really nice outings. Cambree really threw well.”
The glaring problem that sunk the Sun Devils to end the weekend was the lack of production with runners in scoring position and on base.
The biggest missed opportunity in that regard came in the fourth inning. To begin the frame, the Sun Devils were able to piece multiple base hits together to load the bases. An error by Oregon State allowed a run to score and the bases remained full.
With it then being a 3-2 game, the Sun Devils had a prime opportunity to take the lead and break things open, but that didn’t happen. A pop-up, followed by a force out at home left ASU with one more chance to cash in on their golden opportunity.
Freshman infielder Tiare Ho-Ching stepped to the plate and slapped a ball into the left-center gap that looked like it would drop, which would have scored at least two runs. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, it fell into the glove of Oregon State junior outfielder Morgan Howey.
“I thought we actually came up with two, three, maybe four hits that six inches one way or another (would have dropped),” Bartlett said. “That is how the game goes sometimes.”
Though Windle was able to secure the Sun Devils’ first and only hit with a runner in scoring position to head to extras, ultimately the missed chances in the fourth were what led to ASU failing to extend their win streak to nine games.
In the end, ASU finished a meager 1-for-11 with RISP good for just a .091 batting average. Not only that, but in situations with just a runner on base, the Sun Devils could only muster a measly 2-for-19 hits and a .105 average.
“We can certainly hit it as hard as we can when we are at the plate,” Bartlett said. “But sometimes you get out.”
The Sun Devils will look to shake off their sluggish offensive performance Thursday in their first-ever Big 12 Conference game against BYU.
“We got to be dogs out there,” Windle said. “The game is not going to change, the game doesn’t know, doesn’t care, you just got to go out there and keep the same energy.”
