(Photo by Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
No. 17 Arizona State (20-8, 0-1 Pac-12) dropped its first Pac-12 conference matchup against Oregon State (17-5, 1-0 Pac-12) on Friday night in Tempe by a score of 5-1.
“There are seven innings in a game, and we played not great softball for six innings tonight,” ASU head coach Trisha Ford said. “We did not play clean defense, we did not have a good day in the circle and offensively we did not get anything started.”
The Sun Devils’ troubles began in the top of the first with freshman Abby Andersen toeing the rubber. Andersen, in her third consecutive start, gave up three runs on two hits paired with two errors from sophomore second baseman Bella Loomis.
Arizona State gave up another run in the top of the second after OSU’s Shelby Weeks reached base on another ASU fielding error, this time from junior shortstop Jade Gortarez. Weeks touched home on a sac fly that put the Beavers up 4-0.
OSU’s sophomore pitcher Mariah Mazon had ASU’s copious offense baffled, retiring five Sun Devils on strikes. Mazon threw a complete game, allowing only one run on Sun Devil junior catcher Maddi Hackbarth’s home run in the bottom of the seventh.
Mazon shut down both of ASU’s most prolific hitters: Loomis and junior right fielder Kindra Hackbarth in each of their three plate appearances.
“I was disappointed with our approach in the (batter’s) box,” Ford said. “We also did not play good defense, that’s something we cannot be doing.”
Despite OSU tacking on another run in the fourth, Andersen collected herself in the circle and the defense behind her began to make plays. After the final OSU run in the fourth, Andersen and her defense retired three Beavers consecutively in the fifth and three out of four in both the sixth and seventh.
“Obviously we are all a little bit disappointed about the first couple innings, but (Andersen) battled,” Ford said. “She knows what she’s capable of doing so (the loss) is going to hurt tonight, but I want it to, I want it to matter.”
While ASU had their fair share of struggles throughout the game, a two-hit seventh inning for the Sun Devils which included Hackbarth’s aforementioned home run, managed to provide a bright spot in a dull loss to their first conference opponent.
“Don’t count us out, we are not done yet,” senior center fielder Morgan Howe said. “We need to play clean defense, we need to learn how to throw and catch, we need to talk to each other after every at-bat and we need to make adjustments… [The team needs to work on] adjusting to the game, sticking to a plan, and cleaning up everything else.”
Game two of the series between OSU and ASU will continue Saturday evening at 5 p.m. at Farrington Stadium.
