On any given day you can get any different team, and that was the case on Thursday.
Four days after losing to the worst team in the Pac-12, ASU softball (33-19, 11-10 Pac-12) defeated No. 6 UCLA 8-7 after senior outfielder Elizabeth Caporuscio hit a go-ahead double to left.
Caporuscio's double put ASU ahead 6-5 in the bottom of the fifth, and the Sun Devils extended their lead by scoring on two passed balls later in the inning. The Bruins (44-9, 18-4 Pac-12) closed the gap after getting solo home runs to lead off the sixth and seventh innings, but UCLA's leadoff hitter Delaney Spaulding flew out to end the game with a runner on first.
"We've had some rough patches here lately and I think just it shows our team what we're capable of when we come play at a high level," ASU coach Craig Nicholson said. "We played at a high level tonight and when we play at that high level we can compete with a lot of people but when we just kind of show up and go play the game, we can lose to a lot of people too."
UCLA senior pitcher Ally Carda (25-5) took the loss after allowing 10 hits and eight runs (six earned) in 4+ innings pitched. Nicholson said the key to the team's success off Carda was staying on top of her riseball and laying off her offspeed pitches.
ASU countered Carda by starting freshman Dale Ryndak, a surprising move given freshman Breanna Macha had started the first game of each Pac-12 series this season.
"We figured we were going to have to use them both," Nicholson said. "We wanted to use Bre at the end of the game tonight, so we may flip-flop it tomorrow but that's kind of what the decision was based on. We kind of went into the game planning on splitting it; someone was going three (innings) and someone was going four."
Ryndak was hit hard, allowing 10 hits and four earned runs in 3+ innings pitched, but left with the lead in hand. Ryndak was relieved with the bases loaded and the top of the order due up for UCLA with nobody out. Macha was one strike from getting out of the inning, but walked Carda to bring in a run.
She allowed no further damage that inning but the Bruins tied the game on a leadoff home run in the fifth inning, their second shot of the game. Macha allowed leadoff home runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings, all coming off either the first or second pitch of the inning.
Macha (16-10) picked up the win for ASU, allowing six hits and three earned runs (all home runs) in four innings to go along with one walk and four strikeouts.
The Bruins originally took the lead in the second inning when UCLA's Mysha Sataraka hit a two-run home run to left. Sataraka's shot was just the first of four home runs in the game, which all came from the bottom half of UCLA's lineup. Fortunately for ASU, three of the four home runs were solo shots.
UCLA extended its lead to 3-0 off of sacrifice fly from Spaulding, which ASU senior right fielder Sierra Rodriguez had to make an acrobatic catch on. However, ASU tied the game in the third inning when senior third baseman Haley Steele hit a three-run home run to left.
"One strong point about this team is that even when we're down, we don't give up," Steele said. "This is a fighting team. You're going to see us fight until the last inning. It was going to happen. We were sticking to our plan. We were very calm and collected and we were just getting base runners on every inning and what we had to do was execute when they were in scoring position."
Entering the weekend, UCLA was in contention for the Pac-12 championship, but it looks like that aspiration is over after just one game in the series. UCLA is down two games on Oregon with two remaining and the Ducks won the series against the Bruins in the regular season.
Reach the reporter at jmjanss1@asu.edu or follow @jjanssen11 on Twitter
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