For most programs, getting to Oklahoma City symbolizes a lofty goal, not the annual expectation.
At ASU, the bar is raised higher than most programs, with success defined by how they finish in Oklahoma City.
“We’ve known that we’re going to be at the (Women's College) World Series,” junior pitcher Dallas Escobedo said. “It’s not, ‘Oh we’re trying to make it.’ When you came here you knew that ASU was getting there.”
ASU coach Clint Myers has turned his program into a perennial powerhouse, and it’s perpetually assumed every year his team will qualify for the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
After defeating Kentucky in the Super Regional, ASU (50-10) accomplished just that — advancing to the Women’s College World Series – for the seventh time in Myers’s first eight seasons.
ASU defeated Kentucky (41-21) in two tightly-contested games by scores of 5-4 and 5-2 in front of a sold-out Farrington Stadium.
In the clinching game Saturday, sophomore third baseman Haley Steele provided the heavy lifting, going 3-for-4 at the plate with four RBI, including an insurance two-run homer in the seventh inning.
With the score knotted at two runs apiece in the fifth inning, sophomore catcher Amber Freeman laid down her first sacrifice bunt of the season, advancing two runners into scoring position.
Steele singled to right, scoring junior outfielder Alix Johnson, who had five hits in the series, but she was tossed out at second on the play.
“Today, I did not run the bases well,” Steele said. “I actually had the right read, just at the wrong time. If I hadn’t stopped actually I would have been safe.”
Steele more than made up for her blunder with her bat and in the field. She had three hits in a game for the first time since before conference play began, and made difficult putouts in the infield.
ASU hangs on in Game 1
All season long, Escobedo showed a vulnerability to the home run ball. She gave up 32 in the regular season.
Over the past two weeks, Escobedo appeared to mask the problem, throwing 31 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run entering the Super Regional against Kentucky Friday.
The Wildcats eventually figured Escobedo out, hitting five home runs, all solo, including four in the first game, to make things interesting.
Despite Escobedo’s weakness showing, the Sun Devils did just enough offensively to defeat Kentucky 5-4 in a thriller.
ASU gave Escobedo the run support she was looking for courtesy of junior shortstop Cheyenne Coyle’s three-run homer in the third inning.
After Escobedo gave up a home run in the fifth, ASU backed her up with two more runs, coming off Johnson’s RBI triple and Coyle’s sacrifice fly.
With the way Escobedo was pitching, a 5-1 cushion seemed plenty, but Kentucky went on a home run rampage in the sixth with three solo shots.
Kentucky freshman shortstop Christian Stokes hit two of the team’s four home runs, which cut the deficit to a single run.
“If you look at where those balls were, those were balls, they weren’t close to the zone,” Myers said. She could have just as easy struck them out on that pitch. They just did a really good job of staying on top. Two of them were line drives. How many line drives do you see with pitches in your eyes? Maybe she needs a new luck charm, I don’t know.”
Junior pitcher Mackenzie Popescue earned the three-out save for ASU, seeing her first action of the postseason.
“I personally thought it was a good move on their part,” Kentucky coach Rachel Lawson said. "We had never seen her live, we have seen her a little bit on TV but not live. She actually throws the ball a little harder than we had anticipated but she did such a great job of keeping the ball low and she did a nice job of getting the first two batters out in the inning which I thought was key for the inning.”
Reach the reporter at Justin.Janssen@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @jjanssen11
