ASU softball fell to the Washington Huskies 7-2 in the first game of the teams' three-game series on Friday.
The Huskies ace, freshman pitcher Taran Alvelo, showed to be untouchable for the Sun Devils offense. Alvelo held ASU to only two hits, along with striking out eight batters.
Co-interim head coach Letty Olivarez says the team caught on to Alvelo's pitching style, but the adjustments came too late in the game.
"We were chasing her rise ball," Olivarez said. "And Alvelo saw that we were chasing it, so she knew to always go back to that pitch."
Senior center fielder Jennifer Soria knocked out a two-run home run in the first inning for the Sun Devils. This counted as the only runs put up on the board for ASU.
Soria notes that offense came out flat during the start of the game.
"We just didn't make the adjustments soon enough, and that was what really killed us," Soria said.
Not only was offense unable to produce, the pitching was unable to stop Washington's bats.
Redshirt junior pitcher Kelsey Kessler started out in the circle for the Sun Devils and wasn't able to really find her groove.
Kessler pitched for 4.1 innings and gave up seven runs to Washington.
"We knew coming into the game that Washington was one of the best hitting teams in the country," Kessler said. "They really took advantage of the pitches that I didn't spot as well as I could have."
Looking forward into the rest of the series, Olivarez says the pitching staff needs to focus on getting ahead of the batters.
An early three-run home run put the Huskies on top in the first inning. But after a little production from Soria, the Washington offense wasn’t going to let that stop their hot bats.
After adding two more runs in the third inning, the Huskies continued to advance their lead in the fifth inning, pushing the score to 7-2.
This resulted in sophomore pitcher Breanna Macha to step in the circle and try to turn things around for the Sun Devils.
Macha pitched flawlessly, only allowing one hit to the Huskies. But the offense was unable to cap off the performance of Macha, eventually falling to the Huskies, 7-2.
The Sun Devils look to redeem themselves in game two against Washington tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Reach the reporter at lmbrunet@asu.edu or follow @Leah_brunette on Twitter.
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