It took 12 innings for the ASU softball team to defeat Portland State Friday.
ASU beat Portland State on Saturday twice, with the games lasting a combined 10 innings.
In the early game, ASU won 19-2 in five innings. The 19 runs scored were a season-high and the most ASU has scored since 2010. Fifteen different ASU hitters reached base in the game.
“Usually after that type of game, there’s a little a letdown, and you have to refocus,” ASU coach Clint Myers said. “There was not (Saturday). From the first inning on there was good at-bats, things like that.”
Senior second baseman Sam Parlich said ASU’s ability to lay off pitches outside the strike zone was the difference.
“I think we had a different approach,” Parlich said. “I don’t think we were as ready as we were today. Our mindset was different.”
The outcome of the first fame was never in doubt after ASU scored 10 runs in the first two innings. The Sun Devils were patient at the plate and took 10 walks in the game.
Portland State pitcher Raya Johnson was pulled after recording only one out. Johnson walked four of the five hitters she faced.
Johnson did re-enter the game in the third inning after reliever Karyn Wright proved ineffective. ASU batted around in the first, second and fourth innings. Fourteen hitters came to the plate in an eight-run fourth inning. ASU produced the 19 runs on 14 hits and 10 walks.
It wasn’t as if Myers was running up the score. In the third inning, Myers took most of his starters out of the game. Even with the bench in the game, ASU plated eight runs in the fourth and one in the third.
“It’s awesome,” junior shortstop Cheyenne Coyle said of the bench producing. “There’s so many girls on the team, and you want to see everybody do well.”
In the second game, the story remained the same. ASU jumped out to an early 9-0 lead after the second inning.
Coyle boosted ASU’s attack in the second game. In the first inning, she launched a two-run home run that bounced off the gymnastics practice facility.
ASU smacked 10 hits in the second game, nine of them in the first and second innings.
Junior pitcher Mackenzie Popescue started both games for ASU. Myers said one factor for why junior pitcher Dallas Escobedo didn’t pitch either game was because of the 210 pitches she threw Friday.
ASU played some of its best softball of the season in the doubleheader against Portland State. The Sun Devils batted in only eight combined innings, and scored 28 total runs.
“I think they might have got their eyes woke up,” Myers said. “We told them that Portland (State) is a good ball club. Very scrappy. They better go out and play their A-game. They didn’t play their A-game the first night. Let’s see how good of a weekend it is based on how they play tomorrow.”
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu
