ASU Softball: Sun Devils host Gamecocks in Super Regionals

ASU softball hosts South Carolina in the Tempe Super Regional just two wins shy of a trip to the Women’s College World Series.

The eighth-seeded Arizona State Sun Devils are back in the Super Regionals for the first time since 2013 after cruising to a Tempe Regional championship defeating Ole Miss 9-0 in the regional final.

Arizona State faced a scare in the regional opener against New Mexico State. After taking an early 2-0 lead and pitcher G Juarez taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning, the Aggies broke up the no-no and had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh.

That’s when third baseman Taylor Becerra made one of the plays of the tournament snagging a line drive and diving to tag third base to record a game-ending double play.

The win catapulted the Sun Devils to two comfortable wins over Ole Miss 7-1 and 9-0 to advance to the Super Regionals this weekend.

Arizona State is playing their best softball of the year as the Sun Devils are receiving production from everyone in the lineup, Juarez and Breanna Macha combined to allow just one run in the Tempe Regional and the defense only committed one error in three games last weekend.

Standing between them and a trip to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series is the ninth-seeded South Carolina Gamecocks.

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South Carolina had a tougher time in the Columbia Regional having to win three elimination games to make it to the Super Regionals.

The Gamecocks faced Hofstra last Saturday in an elimination game trailing 4-3 in the seventh inning. After a two-out walk, Krystan White hit a two-run home run over the left field wall to escape with a 5-4 win.

They carried that momentum into Sunday’s regional final where they avenged an earlier loss to Liberty winning 2-0 and 5-0 to win the regional.

In the circle, South Carolina is led by three pitchers, Kelsey Oh, Dixie Raley and Cayla Drotar. Oh and Raley lead the staff with 14-5 records and a 1.95 ERA while Drotar is 21-6 with a 2.11 ERA.

South Carolina sports a 2.01 team ERA, which is good for fifth in a deep SEC.

At the plate, the Gamecocks have hit 65 home runs (most in SEC) with Alyssa VanDerveer leading the team with 14 home runs. The team’s leading hitter is Mackenzie Boesel with a .362 batting average, eight home runs and 47 RBIs.

Arizona State has the pitching edge sporting a team ERA of 1.38 with Juarez sporting a 0.88 ERA with 289 strikeouts and Macha having an ERA of 2.22 with 112 strikeouts.

Both lineups are even on paper as Arizona State has hit 63 home runs this season. The difference between the two lineups is that the Sun Devils have three hitters batting at least .300 while South Carolina has two.

When it comes to on-base percentage, South Carolina (.367) has the slight edge over Arizona State (.362). ASU (.477) has the edge in slugging percentage over the Gamecocks (.460).

The defense very well might determine the Super Regional winner as the Gamecocks had the second-best fielding percentage in the SEC (.979). ASU had a .970 fielding percentage, good for sixth in the Pac-12.

Next: ASU Softball: Sun Devils rout Rebels to reach first Super Regional since 2013

Game 1 of the best-of-three Tempe Super Regional is Friday at 8 p.m. PT with first pitch Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) at 6 p.m. PT. Friday and Sunday’s game will be televised on ESPNU with Saturday’s game televised on ESPN2.

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