ASU battled Oregon in the second game of the series, but fell short of the win.
Arizona State honored one of its legends during the battle between No. 9 Oregon Saturday night. Katie Burkhart won the 2008 college World Series and holds the record for wins, strikeouts, shutouts, strikeout ratio and innings pitched. Her number was retired on the Softball Wall of Honor.
The Sun Devils were given pre-game advice from Burkhart.
“Dream big and stop thinking about the losing streak and start thinking about how you’re going to rebuild the next moment,” Burkhart said.
Kelsey Kessler (13-8, 2.84 ERA) started in the circle for the Sun Devils, pitching four innings with six hits and three strikeouts.
Co-interim head coach Letty Olivarez said going into the game the pitchers knew their responsibilities.
“They kept the ball down in the zone and we were really trying to jam the batters because they had big swings and we thought we could beat them on that,” Olivarez said.
In the third inning, senior leftfielder Abby Spiel drew a walk, setting up senior right fielder Allie Butterfield, who hit a shallow fly ball to right field.
With runners on second and first, freshman third baseman Taylor Becerra advanced the runners on a picture-perfect bunt. Senior center fielder Jennifer Soria hit a grounder to second, but Spiel’s swift base running outran the throw to home, giving ASU the 1-0 lead.
Soria said she is focused on making adjustments at the plate.
“We are getting a lot out of these games, and when facing the number five team in the nation, you learn a lot of things and just grow,” Soria said.
In the bottom of the fourth, ASU prompted a pitching change from Oregon, but couldn’t capitalize, leaving two runners on base.
The Sun Devils lead Oregon 1-0 heading into the fifth inning.
In heartbreaking fashion, Oregon hit a grand slam, giving them a 4-1 lead over ASU.
Kessler said it was tough to let that home run happen.
“Ultimately I left the ball up and I can’t do that,” Kessler said. “That’s what happens against good hitters.”
Dale Ryndak relieved Kessler, but gave up a deep hit to right field, allowing the Ducks to score another run.
Ryndak struck out the last batter to end the inning. The Sun Devils had an uphill battle ahead of them with Oregon leading 5-1.
Olivarez said the pitchers overall performed well.
“It’s unfortunate because the events right before the home run could have gone either way and those are things we need to learn from,” Olivarez said.
Kessler believed she and Ryndak were making good pitches.
“They were capitalizing on our mistakes very well and its our execution that is the problem,” Kessler said.
To start out the fifth inning, Becerra fulfilled her leadoff duties, drawing a walk and setting up Soria, who then hit a clutch triple to right field, scoring one.
Nikki Gerard joined the hitting brigade with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring another Sun Devil run.
ASU ended the fifth inning trailing 5-3.
Soria said the mentality going into the game was like every other.
“We just come in looking for a fight and try to battle our way through it,” Soria said.
Gerard started off the seventh inning with a shallow hit to right field, then junior designated player Sashel Palacios drew a walk, putting the tying run on first base.
Gonzales hit a line drive to the shortstop, but the throw to first was overthrown in to the visiting dugout, allowing Gonzales to reach second and a run to score.
However, ASU couldn’t manufacture anymore runs in the seventh. The Sun Devils lost 5-4 against Oregon.
“I liked the fight that we showed today and I think that regardless of how the past games have gone, we have momentum going into this last game,” Kessler said.
ASU will try to avoid a sweep tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m.
