For a team that has had excellent pitching this year, the No. 5 ASU softball team relied on its bats to win the weekend at the Diamond Devil Invitational.
In the team’s final home tournament before conference play, the Sun Devils (25-2) scored 35 runs in four games to defeat Valparaiso, East Carolina, Pacific and New Mexico State.
The team’s main weapon was the long ball, hitting 10 home runs, including six from freshmen Haley Steele, Amber Freeman and Elizabeth Caporuscio.
“It’s always a good thing to come through for your team, but the freshmen class is definitely stepping it up,” Freeman said. “Losing such strong leadership this year, I think we are all stepping it up.”
Sophomore outfielder Alix Johnson also joined in on the home run club, hitting her first ever grand slam in Sunday’s game, a 13–5 win over New Mexico State. Johnson is leading the team with a .558 batting average and a 1.093 slugging percentage.
With these impressive statistics, Johnson has cemented herself into the once-troublesome gap between leadoff hitter senior shortstop Katelyn Boyd and senior Annie Lockwood. Johnson said she likes hitting in the No. 2 spot in the lineup, as it gives her more options.
“I definitely feel a lot more freedom because I like to bunt and slap as well, even though I have been hitting the majority of the time,” Johnson said. “Our No. 9 spot and Boyd get on all the time. So it makes it easier to hit them in.”
Johnson had struggled earlier this season with getting behind in the count to the opposing pitchers and said that is something she worked on in the game against New Mexico State. The Sun Devils worked the count so well that the Aggies changed pitchers four times in the game.
“I need to make an adjustment because I had been hitting with two strikes almost every game,” Johnson said. “I wanted to come out and jump on that first good pitch that I saw. It obviously helped us in the long run.”
Expecting big things out of the underclassmen is not incomprehensible. Pitching coach Chuck D’Arcy said he doesn’t think of his players as being on a certain level dependent on their year.
“We got them here because they can play regardless of their graduating class,” D’Arcy said. “They show maturity and that’s why they came here. That’s why they wanted to come here. That’s why we want them here, and that’s why they perform that way.”
The pitching staff did not have their best weekend, letting up 12 runs, the most in any tournament so far this year.
Sophomore pitcher Dallas Escobedo (9-1, 2.35 ERA) got the win against Pacific on Saturday despite letting up a season-high 10 hits.
“What is a tribute to Dallas is that when you’re not at your best, you can still beat a good team,” D’Arcy said. “That’s a great sign. The demeanor on the mound was excellent despite that there were some difficult situations she was thrust into.
“The one good thing about our pitching staff is they are great at self-evaluation … She knew she struggled tonight, but it’s a question of maturity.”
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
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