ASU softball came out firing and picked up its second win in three games on Saturday at the Mary Nutter Classic, toppling the Texas Longhorns by a final of 9-6 in five innings in Palm Springs, California.
The Longhorns (11-4) entered Saturday's contest fresh off of two wins over ranked teams and six straight wins overall. Texas bested No. 20 Missouri 10-3 before fending off No. 15 Tennessee in the game that preceded their battle with the Sun Devils Saturday.
Sun Devils are in the house for their second day of play at the @NutterClassic! #IgniteTheFight pic.twitter.com/uH4PY11dIt
— Sun Devil Softball (@ASUSoftball) February 25, 2017
At the outset, hoping not to be the Longhorns' third-straight top-25 victim, ASU (11-3) had a prime chance to squash their opponents' red-hot momentum with runners on the corners and two down in the first inning. Sophomore outfielder Fa Leilua came up with a key hit in that situation to put her team on the scoreboard early.
Despite giving up a hit on the first pitch of the bottom of that inning, junior starting pitcher Dale Ryndak (4-0, 0.71 ERA) had a solid game for the Sun Devils. She put down the next three batters in order and went on to allow two earned runs and 10 hits in 5.2 innings, while striking out four Longhorns.
As for the Texas pitching, the Longhorns made their first pitching change in the top of the second after ASU put runners on second and third thanks to a double by sophomore infielder Taylor Becerra.
The new hurler, Kristen Clark, received a cold welcome, as two more runs scored on her first play —one on a sacrifice fly by sophomore outfielder Skylar McCarty and the other on a subsequent throwing error — to extend the ASU advantage to 3-0.
The Sun Devils continued to pick up runs in the third, as a triple by redshirt junior infielder Marisa Stankiewicz knocked in two. She scored two at-bats later, as Becerra singled to stretch the lead to 6-0.
Texas' first run came in the bottom of the third on an RBI-triple by sophomore center fielder Reagan Hathaway, but ASU answered in the fourth with a pair of no-out back-to-back home runs by freshman infielder Miranda Farricker and redshirt junior Margaret Stahm.
The Longhorns put together a hearty sixth-inning rally, scoring four runs with two outs, but ultimately didn't have enough in the tank to pull off the comeback as ASU brought in freshman pitching Giselle Juarez to stop the bleeding.
ASU will continue its five-game stretch at the Mary Nutter Classic with a Sunday doubleheader, taking on UC-Santa Barbara at 2 p.m. before battling No. 14 Michigan at 4:30 p.m.
Reach the reporter at jeff.griffith21@asu.edu or follow @Jeff_Griffith21 on Twitter.
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