ASU Softball: Sun Devils host Stanford on Senior Weekend

After sweeping Utah last weekend in Salt Lake City, ASU softball will look to send out their seniors with a series win against Stanford.

Arizona State is heading into the home stretch of the regular season as the Sun Devils host Stanford in the final home series of the season.

The Sun Devils are coming off a sweep of Utah last weekend and a win over New Mexico State Tuesday in which G Juarez and Breanna Macha combined for the four wins.

ASU dominated the first two games against the Utes winning 12-0 in five innings Friday and 7-2 Saturday.

In Friday’s win, right fielder Kindra Hackbarth, first baseman Danielle Gibson and designated player DeNae Chatman combined for nine RBIs as Juarez threw a five-inning shutout allowing three hits and striking out eight.

Saturday wasn’t much different as a bases-clearing triple from center fielder Morgan Howe and a two-run home run from second baseman Marisa Stankiewicz were the big hits in the game.

Sunday’s game was a nail-biter as the Sun Devils overcame an early 2-0 deficit to hold for a 4-3 win. Chatman hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning to give the Devils a 3-2 lead.

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After Utah tied the game on a solo home run in the fifth inning, catcher Maddi Hackbarth hit an RBI single in the sixth inning to give ASU a 4-3 lead.

Juarez was able to hold on for the one-run win as she finished with another complete game allowing three earned runs and 10 strikeouts.

Arizona State’s latest game came in Las Cruces against New Mexico State as Breanna Macha got the start in the circle.

ASU scored the game’s first runs in the second inning on an Aggies error to score Stankiewicz and an RBI single by left fielder Skylar McCarty to make it 2-0.

New Mexico State got a run back in the fourth inning on a solo home run by center fielder Victoria Castro with Arizona State responding in the fifth with two-run homer by Kindra Hackbarth.

Arizona State tacked on an insurance run in the seventh win to cap a 5-1 win in which Macha allowed one earned run on seven hits with three strikeouts and induced 11 groundouts.

Similar to last weekend’s series, ASU returns to Pac-12 play against a team sitting at the bottom of the conference in Stanford.

The Cardinal enter this weekend with a 23-26 (2-16 Pac-12) record with the only two conference wins coming against Utah on March 24 and UCLA on April 8.

Stanford snapped a 10-game losing streak Tuesday with a 5-1 win over Santa Clara in which the Cardinal scored five runs on five hits and two Santa Clara errors.

The Cardinal offense is led by infielder Whitney Burks (five HRs and 26 RBIs) and infielder Montana Dixon (three HRs and 26 RBIs). As a team, Stanford has hit a Pac-12 low 12 home runs and have scored the second-fewest runs in the conference (195).

In the circle, Stanford is led by pitcher Maddy Dwyer who has a 2.10 ERA in 29 appearances and 20 starts with eight complete games and four shutouts.

Behind Dwyer, the Cardinal rotate three other pitchers in Carolyn Lee (6.65 ERA in 24 appearances), Kiana Pancino (3.40 ERA in 22 appearances) and Nikki Bauer (3.42 ERA in 14 appearances).

In total, Stanford ranks last in the Pac-12 in earned run average (3.73), opponent’s batting average (.254) and strikeouts (204).

Arizona State is heavily favored to win the series against the Cardinal with a high likelihood of sweeping Stanford.

Sitting at 39-9 (12-6 Pac-12), Arizona State will look to further solidify their case to host a regional and make an enticing case to host a Super Regional with a three-game series at No. 1 UCLA next week.

Next: ASU Softball: Sun Devils sweep Utah after late scoring 6th

First pitch Friday is at 7 p.m. PT with Saturday’s at 6 p.m. PT and Sunday’s at 1 p.m. PT as all of the games can be seen on the ASU Live Stream.

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