ASU Softball: Sun Devils fall to UO in WCWS first round

After winning its first five games in the NCAA Tournament, ASU softball fell to Oregon in the first round of the Women’s College World Series by a score of 11-6.

ASU is now one loss away from the end of the season after an 11-6 loss to Oregon.

The Sun Devils fell in a high-scoring affair to Oregon which accounted for 17 total runs. This was unexpected, as the game’s starting pitchers, Giselle “G” Juarez and Miranda Elish, both entered with ERAs around 1.00.

Juarez pitched all six innings for the Sun Devils, allowing 10 earned runs. Although her stats weren’t stellar, Juarez said she is content with her performance.

“I don’t think I threw a bad game,” Juarez said. “You would expect they would make adjustments like I make adjustments to them. I just got out of some tough innings, and that’s really I can say.”

Following Oregon’s offensive explosion, Juarez’s ERA hiked to 1.21 after coming into the game with an ERA of 0.91.

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In addition to a rough day in the circle for Juarez, Arizona State struggled in the field. The Sun Devils committed two errors and had trouble with Oregon’s bunts in the early innings.

“It’s what cost us the game. They know it,” ASU head coach Trisha Ford said. Despite losing by five runs, ASU excelled at the plate in the loss. The team recorded eight hits behind six runs, and Morgan Howe and DeNae Chatman combined for two home runs and five RBIs.

“We were well-prepared,” Chatman said. “We went out with a plan, and we stuck to it.”

After getting behind early in the third inning, Howe’s three-run home run minimized the deficit to one in the top of the fifth.

Oregon, however, answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-run shot from Haley Cruse. Shannon Rhodes also hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth, extending the lead to 11-5.

In spite of the large deficit, the Sun Devils continued to fight. Kindra Hackbarth singled up the middle to drive in a run, but the momentum came to an end shortly after.

With no outs and runners on first and second, Skylar McCarty was thrown out at third, but Ford thought the third baseman was not on the bag. Ford, however, did not think the call affected the outcome of the game.

“It is what it is,” Ford said. “I think it was a bang-bang play; everybody has their own opinions. At the end of the day, that wasn’t something that cost us the game.”

Next: OKC Bound: ASU Softball punches ticket to 2018 Women’s College World Series

In ASU’s next game, it is win or go home. The Sun Devils will face the loser of Washington-Oklahoma in an elimination game Saturday at 9 a.m. PT.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.

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