ASU Softball: Sun Devils sweep in doubleheader

ASU softball closed the Littlewood Classic with two wins Sunday behind the hot bats of Kindra Hackbarth and Maddi Hackbarth.

Momentum can take a team either in a positive or negative direction.

For Arizona St., that momentum heavily favored the former of the two. The Sun Devils (8-2) completed the Littlewood Classic with two dominant victories over Utah St. (3-7) and San Diego (2-9) in Tempe Sunday afternoon.

In game one, the Sun Devils used strong hitting in both the third and fourth innings to punctuate a 10-2 victory over the Utah St. Aggies.

Leading the charge for ASU was a dominant pitching performance from junior Cielo Meza. The Long Beach State transfer had her best appearance of the season, surrendering only three hits and two earned runs in 5.1 innings of work.

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But perhaps the biggest impact of the day for Meza came in the strikeout category.

Meza struck out the first four batters she faced and finished the day with 11 total strikeouts, a season-high for a Sun Devil pitcher this season.

“I felt like myself again,” said Meza. “It’s been a while since I’ve felt good like that, so I’m excited to keep that momentum going.”

On offense, Bella Loomis knocked in her first home run of her career at the top of the fourth inning. The three-run shot broke open an early 2-0 lead for the Sun Devils and marked the first extra-base hit of the day for ASU.

But it didn’t stop there. Later in the inning, the lead-off hitter, Kindra Hackbarth jacked a two-run home run to extend the lead to seven.

On the day, Hackbarth finished 5-for-7 from the plate, including a home run in each of the Sun Devils’ games. Hackbarth now has four home runs on fifteen hits this season.

“She (Hackbarth) is a workhouse, she does extra everywhere she can,” said head coach Trisha Ford. “Bella is the same way. They both work their tails off and it’s just a testament to our strength and conditioning program.”

All in all, it only took the Sun Devils six innings to put the Aggies away. The victory went to Meza (2-1) who had her best start of the season in maroon and gold.

“She was rolling through the game,” said Ford. “She did great today and the ball movement was there, and I thought it had a great crisp break to it.”

In game two, the Sun Devils used an early deficit as motivation to work for a sweep.

“We just had to change our mind and say, ‘Hey, we’re a better team,'” said Hackbarth. “We just needed to prove it.”

ASU responded in a heavy fashion, hitting three home runs that equated to nine total runs for the Sun Devils. The biggest came in the final sixth inning as Maddi Hackbarth was at-bat for ASU with the bases loaded.

“It’s tunnel vision at that point,” said Maddi. “I was looking for a good pitch to hit and a base knock to keep us going.”

The result: a bases-loaded home run that cleared the center-field wall off the bat of ASU’s starting catcher and delivered the Sun Devils a 12-3 victory over the Toreros.

After another mercy-rule win on the day, the Sun Devils closed out the final day of the Littlewood Classic with two wins under their belt.

Overall, ASU finished the classic 4-1, a mark identical to its performance in last week’s Kajikawa Classic.

Next week, the Sun Devils are on the road for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic taking place from Feb. 21-24 in Cathedral City, California. ASU first plays Oklahoma St. Thursday at 11 a.m. MST.