Three blowouts in five games this weekend for the No. 5 ASU softball team created an illusion that covered up a tournament wrought with drama.
Nothing better signified this than the team’s 15–3 demolition of Howard University in the second Saturday night game of the Wilson/DeMarini Invitational.
Howard, who had only 14 players on their roster, gave the Sun Devils (20-2) all they could handle with the game tied after three innings, forcing only the second pitching change for ASU of the year.
Before the Sun Devils started the fourth inning, coach Clint Myers had a meeting with his team. What followed were two-run, three-run and nine-run innings.
When asked what he said to spark the team’s bats, the coach was brief.
“I don’t know if it’s printable,” Myers said. “We just said, basically, 'We have got to play Arizona State softball. We have to go up there with a plan and then execute it.'”
Myers went on to say it wasn’t panic mode by any means, citing there was plenty of game left, but also insisted how important it was to manufacture runs early.
This was a problem for ASU during most of the games this weekend, as the team had difficulty putting space in between themselves and their opponents early in games.
“We can’t wait until the fourth, fifth or sixth inning in order to score runs,” Myers said. “A better team should be scoring each and every inning. They have that kind of capability.”
ASU had to get a walk-off home run in the eighth to secure the win against Creighton on Sunday.
Senior Katelyn Boyd accomplished the feat, as she led off in the first extra inning that ASU has participated in this year.
“It wasn’t exactly a good feeling,” Boyd said. “It was more just a relief that something good happened and we won. As long as we won, I didn’t care if I blooped it over the first baseman’s head.”
Perfect Pitching
As ASU senior pitcher Hillary Bach blew a pitch past Wichita State’s Holly Eckert to secure the sixth perfect game in ASU's history, the Sun Devils erupted and poured out of the dugout to congratulate their teammate.
It was the first career perfect game for Bach, who is having a renaissance of sorts this year.
“It was a lot of pressure,” Bach said. “I wasn’t thinking about it. I went into today with the focus of keeping low expectations and to really throw each pitch the best I can.”
Bach (8-0, 0.44 ERA) leads the team in earned run average, wins, shutouts (6), opposing batting average (.197), and is the only Sun Devil pitcher to not record a loss so far.
This is unsurprising as Bach didn’t record a loss all of last year either. She was a perfect 10-0 in 11 games started.
Even though she has many accolades in her four years at ASU, the perfect game was one achievement that was missing.
“It was an exciting thing to happen before your career ends,” Bach said.
The list of ASU pitchers who have thrown a perfect game is short, as Katie Burkhart, Bach’s predecessor, threw three in her career. Also included are senior Carrie Breedlove in 1998 against Detroit Mercy and freshman Erica Beach in 1999 against then-No. 16 California.
“It was a phenomenal pitching performance,” Myers said about Bach’s perfect game Saturday night.
Of ASU’s perfect games, only Burkhart’s first against Notre Dame on March 15, 2007, and Beach’s on May 2, 1999, went past the fifth inning.
Mackenzie Popescue also pitched well this weekend, when she threw a no-hitter against Wichita State.
“I think my focus was more on throwing my way and making them swing at it, than trying to throw a strike,” Popescue said. “I just have to never let myself care what the umpire thinks.”
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
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