(Photo: Sammy Nute/WCSN)
TEMPE — Arizona State fell short of clinching a much-needed series victory against California on Sunday due to continued struggles with offensive inconsistency despite having plenty of chances to get more runs on the board.
On the surface, the Sun Devils’ failure to launch in the batters box can be seen in only recording four hits and drawing three walks. However, the team stranding a total of thirteen baserunners while putting at least one runner on base in six out of seven innings of play tells a different story.
In the first two innings, ASU (19-27, 3-18 Pac-12) seemed poised to take advantage of California’s (33-15, 7-12 Pac-12) early mistakes. However, this didn’t hold as the Sun Devils’ 7-2 loss to the Golden Bears.
The bottom of the first saw graduate outfielder Kelsey Hall position herself at third base following a base hit and passed ball before a strikeout by graduate infielder Jordyn VanHook ended the inning. The same scenario played itself out an inning later when graduate infielder Alesia Denby being hit by a pitch eventually led to her taking third on a wild pitch. Once again, an opportunity to get onto the scoresheet was squandered on a groundout the next at-bat.
After giving up six runs in the top of the third, the bats of ASU finally broke through in the bottom half of the inning to put themselves in a spot to pull off a miraculous comeback just like they had done the night before. Sophomore outfielder Tanya Windle got the first run across on an RBI single, and another California wild pitch tacked on another while also moving runners to second and third. Even better, Denby was hit for a second time to load the bases with two outs.
Yet, the Sun Devils’ scoring well would dry up as quickly as it had appeared when freshman utility Samantha Swan struck out swinging.
“You see this a lot of the time with young athletes,” said head coach Megan Bartlett in reference to the batters’ aggressive nature leading to more base runners being stranded. “Last night, we came up with two big home runs late, walk-off win. That to me (is) what (happened) every time we got runners in scoring position, it didn’t matter who was up to the plate. We were under the ball… we started facing a down ball, then we saw a rise baller, and then they brought in a closer that kind of ran up the (velocity) a little bit… and we just could not seem to get to the middle of the ball.”
Just like before, ASU rewinded back into a similar situation the very next inning. With only one out this time around, the Sun Devils loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch against freshman infielder Walsh, a fielding error by California’s first baseman, and Hall drawing a walk. Unfortunately, the end result would also be a carbon copy when Windle grounded into a fielder’s choice and VanHook hit an infield fly to leave the bases loaded two times in a row.
Arizona State would attempt a couple of two-out rallies in the bottom of the sixth and seventh that would both end on swinging strikeouts to reach the tally of thirteen stranded baserunners in a 7-2 loss.
Despite managing to snap their 11-game losing streak in their series against California, the Sun Devils’ offensive performance on Sunday leaves them hanging on a frustrating note. At the end of the day, the scoreboard only reflects the amount of runs a team actually brought across home plate instead of how many it could’ve.
With their final regular season series versus UCLA on the horizon, ASU hopes that making sure to strike while the iron is hot can help their offense finally achieve its full potential.
“When you have those opportunities with runners in scoring position, it is not about trying to lift the ball (to) come up with a daddy hack or a home run in that moment,” said Bartlett. “A good old-fashioned single into the gap or double into the gap will get a lot of damage done. So, we obviously had trouble just reeling them back mentally in a place where they were keeping things simple… small athletic movements… get to the top of the ball… get to the front… drive it into the gap. We just couldn’t seem to come up for air today.”
