(Photo credit: Joshua Eaton/WCSN)
TEMPE — Sun Devil senior right-hander Kenzie Brown was dealing to start Wednesday night’s game against Oklahoma State. With five strikeouts through two complete innings, she was showing why she was ranked as the No. 9 pitcher in the country by Softball America. It started to seem like the fans at Farrington Stadium were in for another six-plus inning game with Brown in the circle. However, Oklahoma State senior infielder Megan Bloodworth had other plans.
Leading off the third inning, Bloodworth connected with a ball, driving it deep to left field near the lit-up trees. A group of Oklahoma State fans on the first base side reacted with a celebration that could be heard throughout the stadium, and just like that, Arizona State found itself trailing with its best pitcher in the circle.
Oklahoma State’s offense continued to build on Bloodworth’s hit, and the Sun Devils (24-13, 6-7 Big 12 Conference) found themselves on the losing end of a 4-0 non-conference tilt versus the No. 18 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (22-9, 5-3 Big 12).
Brown made her tenth start for Arizona State this season. Despite the solo home run, she stayed in control and gave the Sun Devils another great outing. In four complete innings, Brown gave up a mere three hits, one earned run, two walks, and recorded nine strikeouts. She was one punch out short of her seventh double-digit strikeout game.
“Reality is, offensively we were just really having trouble getting anything going,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “To continue to pound on her arm when we didn’t have a ton of offensive momentum for us just didn’t make sense.”
Bartlett chose to bring in sophomore right-hander Meika Lauppe to start the fifth inning. After a single, a wild pitch and a ground out, Lauppe had Bloodworth sitting on third base with only one away.
Bloodworth took off on a grounder hit back to the circle. Lauppe quickly adjusted her feet and fired to home plate, where sophomore catcher Samantha Swan got Bloodworth stuck in a pickle. As Swan was running up the third baseline, she threw wide of the bag, and Bloodworth scored to give OSU a 2-0 lead.
The batter, Cowgirls sophomore outfielder Tia Warsop, advanced to third base on the throwing error. Cowgirls sophomore second baseman Rosie Davis laid down a bunt the next at-bat, and Warsop was able to beat out the toss from Sun Devil freshman third baseman Takyla Davis.
In an inning where only one ball left the infield, Lauppe had given up two unearned runs, and ASU was down in a 3-0 hole late in the game.
“Speed of the game, I think, got away from the defense a little bit,” Bartlett said. “It’s extremely frustrating. We love our pitching staff, and they continue to grind and work so hard for us. We just have to continue to stay with the pace of the game. We were prepared for that.”
OSU junior right-hander Ruby Meylan threw her fifth complete game of the season. In the seven innings, she only allowed four hits and walked three Sun Devil batters. However, ASU made good contact off her. Meylan had only three total strikeouts, which was her lowest total out of all her complete games.
“(Meylan) is a World Series quality arm,” Bartlett said. “We spend a lot of time on hitability and just how we train our hitters. … There were some bright spots there. There just wasn’t enough, and we didn’t string enough together to come up with any real momentum.”
The Sun Devils only have three remaining conference series left, and they currently sit sixth in the Big 12 standings. Two of those series are at Farrington Stadium, with one starting this upcoming Friday against the Kansas Jayhawks.
“The reality is, well (OSU) is a quality opponent for us, that’s a non-con right now,” Bartlett said. “Heading back into Kansas this weekend, we’ll get (the team) refocused. … They need to find some fight.”
