The third-ranked Oregon Ducks showed their might on Friday night against No. 21 ASU softball.
An unbeaten Oregon team (31-0, 6-0) shutout the Sun Devils 4-0 in a Pac-12 showdown behind dominate pitching, allowing just three hits to ASU batters in Eugene, Oregon.
ASU also only managed to get three runners in scoring position the entire game. The Sun Devils (23-10) were one-hit through six innings and their second and third hits came in the seventh inning, their only real threat to plate a run in the game.
The first hit for ASU came in the second inning with a double down the line from senior infielder Chelsea Gonzales. It was Gonzales’s 187th career hit for the Sun Devils, tied for 21st in program history.
Senior catcher Sashel Palacios — last week's Pac-12 player of the week — was coming off five home runs and 11 RBI last week. But even she was cooled off by the Ducks, going 1-3 for the night.
With the Sun Devil offense absent all game, junior pitcher Breanna Macha (9-5) was on the bump for the Sun Devils and pitched a full six innings. It was a so-so outing by Macha's standards, giving up nine hits and four runs while walking one with three strikeouts.
The Ducks jumped on Macha early with a pair of singles and a triple in the second inning to jump out to a 2-0 lead.
They would tack on another run in both the fifth and sixth innings with singles to raise the lead to 4-0, a score that would remain.
Aside from Oregon’s nine hits, freshman starting pitcher Maggie Balint (15-0) was the talk of the night. She pitched a complete game, striking out ten Sun Devils and allowing just three hits and two walks.
Balint, ranked the No. 4 recruit in the nation by FloSoftball.com coming out of high school, has a staggering 0.97 ERA through 72.1 innings this season with 100 strikeouts.
HIGHLIGHTS | Maggie Balint strikes out 10 and allows just three hits in a shutout win over ASU! #GoDucks https://t.co/VBGXZKKCgI
— Oregon Duck Softball (@OregonSB) April 1, 2017
The Sun Devils will now look to bounce back Saturday afternoon in game two of the three-game series, eager to pull closer to a .500 record in Pac-12 play. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.
Reach the reporter at leon.annaliese13@gmail.com or follow @lieseleon on Twitter.
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