(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
After a tough loss to No. 5 Oklahoma State on the first night of the Kajikawa Classic, No. 21 Arizona State bounced back with a win against Missouri State on the second night of the event, taking down the Bears 7-3.
The Sun Devils were led behind the big bats of freshman first baseman Cydney Sanders, junior shortstop Alynah Torres and the strong arm of freshman pitcher Mac Morgan, who were able to provide at just the right times when the Sun Devils were in need of starting a rally.
Despite ASU being the significantly better team present, MSU would strike first after getting a single and eventually scoring on an error in the top of the first, but pitcher Mac Morgan would lock down the next few innings in the circle.
Morgan, in her first collegiate start, threw for four and a third innings, only allowing one earned run while tallying four strikeouts. ASU softball head coach Trisha Ford had nothing but positives to say about her young right hander after a strong outing.
“I thought Mac did well, she didn’t really have a hard-hit ball against her. They were fisting the ball down into the ground and I thought she did a great job,” Ford said. “I think Mac is going to really develop over these years.”
After Morgan’s appearance, junior pitcher Lindsay Lopez came in and did what she does best, keep the Devils ahead. She tallied two and two thirds innings in her relief appearance only allowing one earned run on five hits while being able to keep the ball on the ground a majority of the time.
Pitching and defense weren’t the only sides that got ASU going, great offensive performances from Alynah Torres, who went two for three with two extra base hits, with one of them being a two-run bomb over the right-center field wall in the fifth inning.
“It’s exciting. The first one is always the one I need to get out of the way just for the nerves and everything like that,” Torres said. “Once that happened, I was able to get a little more relaxed in the box.”
Torres tallied four RBIs in the win and her “see ball, hit ball” approach seemed to help her come up with a three-run bottom of the fifth even after her big two run double in the third which helped put the score out of reach of the opposing Bears offense.
Torres wasn’t the only Devil who wanted to hop on the offensive train. Freshman Cydney Sanders, who has had a great first three games to start her collegiate career, also went two for three with a single, double and showed signs of being a future star under coach Ford.
“Cyd is Cyd,” Ford said about the freshman infielder. “Cyd is someone who really bought into our program at a young age. She was one of my early recruits. I’m really excited to see her on the field. She just knows how to compete. I think that’s why Cyd and I mesh so well.”
Sanders has shown nothing but great confidence and poise in these few games so far, which is why she was thrusted into the clean-up spot after just two games. “Nothing really gets to Cyd,” Ford added later. “She doesn’t look like a freshman in the box. She is enjoyable to coach.”
This Sun Devil squad is one that coach Ford has built from the ground up and is very excited about the potential this team can bring in the softball-heavy Pac-12 conference.
“I think we are starting off at a level where there is a lot of room for growth. (It’s about) how are we going to become students of the game and how are we going to continue to get better and better and better,” Ford said after being asked about the future of this “homegrown” roster.
When asked about Missouri State and their brand of play, Ford replied, “I just think they are scrappy. They come out and play hard, they love softball. They kind of do anything and everything to scrap up a win.”
The Sun Devils are focusing on “their brand of softball” instead of focusing on their opponents, which has so far helped them into a 2-1 start to the beginning of the 2022 season.
With two more days of the Kajikawa Classic to go, the Sun Devils look to take on the No. 20 Duke Blue Devils Saturday night and then Missouri State again on Sunday afternoon, looking for this roster to have fast paced offense, grit and grind defense, and fire power coming out of the bullpen.
