ASU softball finished the Littlewood Classic with a big 9-2 win against the Montana Grizzlies to improve their season record to 11-1.
For offense, the bats sparked some fire throughout the entire game. In the bottom of the third, senior left fielder Abby Spiel and junior shortstop Chelsea Gonzales picked up back-to-back singles.
Spiel finished the game 3-for-4 with two runs. Her batting average is .469 with a season total of 16 hits and 12 runs.
“As a team, were focusing on putting the ball in play,” she said. “We’ve been practicing on finding any way to get on base so that we can have the other hitters bring us around.”
Following the hitting streak was junior catcher Sashel Palacios, who laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to scoring position. But the following two batters were unable to execute, leaving two runners stranded on base.
In the bottom of the sixth with runners in scoring position, sophomore third baseman Brynley Steele hit a hardball over the fence for her first career home run. Steele went 1-for-2 with four RBIs.
“I had struggled the at-bat before, so I was really trying to drive the ball and it just happened to go over the fence,” said Steele.
Defense started off solid with a lot of action in the infield. Senior Katee Aguirre played first base, freshman Taylor Becerra moved over to second, and Steele played third.
Sophomore pitcher Dale Ryndak was the starting pitcher against the Grizzlies. Ryndak pitched a total of 4.2 innings, giving up six hits. She also gave up one run at the bottom of the fifth.
The one run given up by Ryndak was a solo home run with two outs.
This also had been the same situation that occurred in the game the night before, when redshirt junior pitcher Kelsey Kessler gave up a solo homerun at the bottom of the 7th vs Northern Iowa.
Co-interim coach Letty Olivarez pointed out that these long tournaments have a negative affect on the pitchers.
“Dale started to getting a little tired towards the end, and her ball started to flatten out,” she said. “So that’s when we decided to make the change.”
Kessler then stepped in the circle for 2.1 innings and managed to only allow four hits and one run. It was Kessler’s second save of the season.
With three more tournaments in line for the Sun Devils, Kessler said the team needs to practice on their endurance in order to keep the fire coming.
“I think we should be working more on our stamina, especially to get us through the last couple of innings,” he said.
The Sun Devils look to continue their winning streak, where they will host the Diamond Devil Invitational starting Feb. 26 as they face off Minnesota.
Reach the reporter at lmbrunet@asu.edu or follow @Leah_brunette on Twitter.
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