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ASU Softball: Sun Devils favorites to advance, but it won’t be easy

By Sam Ficarro

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 09: Arizona State Sun Devils mascot Sparky the Sun Devil performs during the team's quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament against the Oregon Ducks T-Mobile Arena on March 9, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oregon won 80-57. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 09: Arizona State Sun Devils mascot Sparky the Sun Devil performs during the team's quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament against the Oregon Ducks T-Mobile Arena on March 9, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oregon won 80-57. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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ASU softball begins their road to Oklahoma City Friday as they host a difficult Tempe Regional featuring Ole Miss, Long Beach State and New Mexico State.

For the first time in four years, Arizona State softball is hosting during regional weekend as they begin, in what they hope, is a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

After dropping two of three games at No. 1 UCLA in the final series of the season, Arizona State was left biting their nails on Selection Sunday as to see if they would be a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament allowing the Sun Devils to host a Super Regional should they advance.

As ESPN revealed the seed in descending order, Arizona State’s name finally appeared as the eighth overall seed resulting in the Sun Devils not having to leave Tempe until the Women’s College World Series.

While the Sun Devils drew the eighth overall seed and are the favorites to advance to out of the Tempe Regional, it will be a tough regional.

The Sun Devils’ opponent Friday night is a familiar one in New Mexico State (29-22, 11-4 WAC). Arizona State defeated the Aggies twice during the regular season, 3-0 on March 3 and 5-1 on May 1, with senior pitcher Breanna Macha picking up the wins in both meetings.

The Aggies are the champions of the WAC as they defeated Grand Canyon 9-7 in the WAC Championship Game.

New Mexico State has the nation’s leading home run hitter in second baseman Kelsey Horton, who has hit 25 homers to go with 64 RBIs (tied for fourth in the nation) and a .407 batting average.

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In the circle for the Aggies, they are led by pitcher Kayla Green, who posts a 14-8 record and a 3.52 ERA. Samaria Diaz pitched in both games against ASU with Diaz throwing a complete game in the first meeting allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits to go with two strikeouts.

In the second meeting, Diaz relieved pitcher Analise De La Roca throwing three innings allowing one earned run on three hits and two strikeouts. De La Roca got the loss in the second meeting allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits, one walk and two strikeouts.

Arizona State should win the opener against the Aggies leading to matchup with either Long Beach State or Ole Miss Saturday in the 1-0 game.

The Rebels are in the same regional as the Sun Devils for the second straight year after the Rebels emerged from the Oxford Regional last year.

Ole Miss (30-23, 7-17 SEC) is not as strong as last year’s team that won the SEC Tournament and earned the 12th-overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Despite this season’s struggles, the Rebels are still led by their ace pitcher Kaitlin Lee as she leads the pitching staff with a 2.28 ERA and 27 starts.

At the plate, outfielder Elantra Cox leads the lineup posting a .343 batting average, 13 RBIs and 27 stolen bases.

In the extremely competitive SEC, Ole Miss finished as the worst hitting team with a .261 team batting average and scored the second fewest runs (227).

Ole Miss will face Long Beach State, who might be ASU’s toughest challenger in the Tempe Regional.

The 49ers, who finished No. 21 in the final ESPN/USA Softball Poll, got into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large out of the Big West with Cal State Fullerton winning the conference.

LBSU has been battle-tested this season posting a 42-12 record with some impressive non-conference wins against James Madison, BYU, Boise State, Northwestern, Auburn, Minnesota and Oregon State.

The 49ers also had one-run losses versus UCLA and California and a 4-0 loss versus Washington.

Long Beach State has one of the best pitching staffs in the nation led by Cielo Meza, who has a 22-4 record with a 1.48 ERA and 217 strikeouts.

The leading run producer for the 49ers is first baseman Taylor Rowland, who leads the team with 12 home runs and 58 RBIs.

Arizona State, who had seven players named to the All-Pac-12 conference teams, are the favorites led by pitcher G Juarez, who finished third in the nation with a 0.92 ERA and ninth in strikeouts with 276.

To go with the experience of Macha, the Sun Devils also have one of the best lineups in the nation as they finished with 60 home runs as a team.

Next: ASU Softball: Sun Devils draw No. 8 seed in NCAA Tournament

While this is a relatively young team, Arizona State will have the home crowd behind them and should be able to get out of the Tempe Regional and advance to the Super Regional.

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