A day after the ASU softball team slugged its way to 23 runs, the Sun Devils managed just three in a 4-3 loss to Stanford.
ASU (36-4, 7-2 Pac-12) won the first two games of the series in a doubleheader Saturday but dropped the series finale on Sunday. ASU left seven runners on base in the finale, including leaving the bases loaded in the fifth inning.
Stanford (27-12, 5-7 Pac-12) struck out nine times at the plate but managed to do just enough offensively to avoid being swept for the second time this season.
Two batters into the game, ASU jumped in front of Stanford 2-0 when Junior shortstop Cheyenne Coyle hit her team-leading 14th home run of the season.
Stanford countered right back against ASU junior pitcher Dallas Escobedo (19-4). The first three Stanford batters reached in the bottom of the first.
Two batters later, Stanford scored with a sacrifice fly, the first ASU has allowed all season. The next Stanford batter sophomore second baseman Erin Ashby tied the game with an RBI single to left.
In the third, Stanford sophomore outfielder Cassandra Roulund tripled to right-center field. The triple was the first of the season by an ASU opponent.
Roulund hit two home runs off of Escobedo in the first game of the series. She scored the go-ahead run for Stanford on a wild pitch later in the inning.
Stanford extended their lead to 4-2 in the fourth with a bases-loaded single in the infield. Escobedo kept ASU in the game by striking out the final two hitters of the inning, with the bases still loaded.
In the fifth, ASU had their best opportunity to tie the game. Sophomore outfielder Elizabeth Caporuscio stepped to the plate with two outs and runners on at first and second base. She doubled to right scoring a run, but the trailing runner couldn’t come home from first.
Sophomore first baseman Bethany Kemp was hit by a pitch to load the bases for junior designated player Lucy Aubrecht. Aubrecht grounded out with the bases loaded and ASU trailing 4-3 to end the threat.
ASU couldn’t muster much of a rally in either of the fifth or sixth innings. The Sun Devils didn’t advance a runner past first base in either inning.
Stanford senior pitcher Teagan Gerhart (15-6), sister of ex-ASU football center Garth Gerhart, picked up the win for the Cardinal. After allowing 10 earned runs in the opener, Gerhart allowed three runs and pitched a complete game in the finale.
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu
